a week of pictures

Last week I read Emily Anderson's blog about the importance of taking pictures with your kids no matter how dirty, crusty, unfeminine you just happen to feel. She says it so much better so check it out if you want before looking at me 'embracing the camera.' You were supposed to take a picture each day and post it in her comments. I took a picture each day but decided to post them all on day 5 because it was easier. sorry emily!

Here I am this week with my boys...

Day 1:

WHO:

me exhausted from staying up late the night before watching LOST

Micah being shyly cute

WHAT:

playing 'bumblebee game' with Zach before bed

Day 2:

WHO:
me sweaty from running (running a 5K next month which is very un-me!)

Connor squeaky clean with a cute paci smile

WHAT:

Zach let them play on the porch and wait for me and now it's time for Connor to go night night.

Day 3:

WHO:

me attempting to take a picture in the mirror

Micah squeaky clean in his hoodie towel

WHAT?:

We're being indians. Can't you tell!?!?!

(Peter Pan is his current favorite)

WHO:

a not showered me

a difficult boy who refused to make a 'normal' smile

WHAT:

playing at Johnson Park with Bella and William

WHO:

me and Connor who has no trouble smiling :)

WHO:

me (wearing MAKEUP!!!)

Connor thinking the camera is hilarious

WHAT:

realizing that we have tons to do today and if I don't get a picture now I might forget later and not have time to finish this post :)

I will not add all the negatives I thought about myself as I was downloading these pictures. I will only say I had fun doing everything these pictures represent!

morning at the park

This morning I went to the park with...

one determined little kid who climbed, ran and tackled every slide, ladder and obstacle.

one cautious little kid who looked at every slide, ladder and obstacle with longing but was only brave enough to try a few.

one busy little kid who 'ran' everywhere, fell everywhere and was hard to keep still for a picture.

and

one smiley little kid who was just happy to be included in the adventure.

I'll let you look at our pictures and see if you can figure out which is which!

The kids had a great time and one was particularly worn out (or maybe it was just because it was nap time!)

LOST

Sunday was the end of something important...LOST! This show will go down in our life history as one if not THE best show we have/will watch together. To commemorate this important event we had a LOST:The Finale viewing party at our house. I had all sorts of ideas of how to do cute Dharma logos on all the drinks and pizza boxes, getting everyone a lei to wear, and other things but due to our fun and busy weekend I decided (or it was decided for me) that just being together and watching was good enough. We gathered together, some in costume, starting with the retrospective and working on through THE END. It was fabulously fun, exciting, and somewhat emotional.

In honor of this ending to part of my tv life I want to share my top 10 reasons of why I loved LOST.

10) The pretty boys to look at...Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Jin, DESMOND :), and Richard. Well basically all the characters. They were each individually interesting, in depth, and fun to get to know.

9) It was not too funny, not too dramatic, not too scary but just the right mix of all three.

8) The scenery was gorgeous. I will definitely be visiting Hawaii some time in my life.

7) The way the story lines intertwined. Life really is just one giant pretzel looping around a lot of the same people even if you don't realize it.

6) You had to be on your intellectual toes while watching. There was SO much in there to think about and ponder.

5) Way back when I was working at Shoal Creek Chassidy, Kylie and I would sit around our lunch table while poor Krysti put up with us talking, talking, talking, talking about this show.

4) Fellow Losties. You can immediately find common ground with another LOST fan. You will automatically have something to talk about and share which can always lead into other things.

3) This show began just a couple months after Zach and I got married. It is the first show we have both loved and watched together from beginning to end. It is actually the ONLY show I have ever seen from the first pilot to the series finale.

2) The occasional warm, fuzzy ending montage.

1) No matter what anyone pretends this show was all about THE GOSPEL!! Love, Fellowship, Redemption, Forgiveness and Sacrifice. It might not have fit into everyone's personal 'theological' bubble but it'd be hard to argue the fact that this show RADIATED with examples/stories the Bible has set before us.

So long LOST...we'll miss you!

a&k's wedding

Last weekend Andrew and Krista got married. Because it was their wedding I will concentrate on them first. It was BEAUTIFUL! The tuxes were awesome, the bridesmaids dresses gorgeous and it took ALOT of restraint not to rip the shoes off one of them. Krista bought them high heeled brightly colored peep toe heels. SOOO CUTE! The flowers were beautiful gerber daisies, lillies and greenery, the fellowship hall had twinkly lights tree branches and a fountain. Seriously cute. The bride and groom glowed with love for each other and everyone had a blast!

My personal favorite however was seeing Zach and Micah in their matching tuxes. They were so handsomely adorable. Well Zach was handsome and Micah was adorable. Micah was just so proud of himself wearing his tuxedo. As long as you didn't tell him how good he looked or how good of job he did or basically just talk to him in general he was fine. (He's going a bit of a shy/embarrassed stage)

My brain is a bit sleepy at the moment (LOST finale last night) so I'll just post some pictures from the day so you can see the fun/beauty/cuteness/ for yourself!

what i'm thinking

It's 11 am and I am sitting under my cute red umbrella on my patio watching three crazy children 'mowing' the grass and listening to the monitor waiting for the other one to join the group. It's been a busy last few weeks with connor's birthday, andrew's wedding, kayden's dedication, younglife's end of the year party, plus normal daily living. My brain always seems full but today that fullness is swishing around and trying to get sorted out, thought through, or just plain rejected. Zach and I were talking a few weeks ago about how many different facets of our life are...hmmm what's a good word...unsteady (maybe), unsecure (is that even a word), how about just not cruising along like you'd want. I've gotten way too little sleep the past few days which makes my brain run even more and today I have decided to just list it all...everything that's running around in there...well atleast everything I won't forget in the moment.

I'm thinking...

*there are 100 things I could do to this house to make it cuter and more enjoyable to look at.

*there are 100 reasons why I think doing those 100 things doesn't make sense because there are 100 more reasons why I'd just love a new place.

*i love my church and am having a tough time not knowing where it's future will be because of lack of $$$$

*i resisted being involved in younglife for 4 years of living in conyers and not that i am on the committee and loving it to say it's struggling financially is a big fat understatement.

*my kids are really cute, sweet, smart and loving. i pray i can parent them gracefully, teaching them how to grow up to be awesome people in the kingdom.

*dirt is annoying. the lack of dirt is ANNOYING'er.

*i kill all plants. well almost all plants my potted gerber daisy are actually doing pretty darn well.

*many of my friends are dealing with issues I can't imagine ever dealing with and besides praying I have no clue what to do for them but I want to do something.

*LOST is ending on Sunday. The first time Zach and I watched this show was in our apartment in the first few months we'd been married.

*i'm sleepy.

*i miss my women's group. i forget how nice it was to have that time out of the house and time with other girls/women.

*couponing is great and definitely saves me money but sometimes i'd like to throw it all in the lake. especially when i forget to cut them out when i get them and then spend way too long having to catch up.

*i love grocery shopping (i know kind of contradictory to the last thought) and i love cooking and look forward to the day i can spend a little more time thinking about it.

*being a SAHM is awesome and i don't have to leave my house every morning for work.

OK so I know just reading this sounds like a lot of complaining but I promise its not. It's what my brain is thinking and what it's trying to sort out and do something about. I've been reading my bible a lot more lately (sadly way more than I ever have in the 20+ years I've been a Christian) and a verse recently made me smile (and apparently think).

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:13

It's not wise to act without thinking first so maybe that's what is going on. Maybe God is forcing my brain to sort through all these random thoughts to prepare me to act.

manly decorating

Zach looked at our built ins the other day and decided it needed a little something...

Before

After

Seriously though, Zach has been planning on buying a larger TV for awhile but it was on the 'what we'll buy when we get a new house' list. This Sunday we are having friends over to watch the finale of LOST and he decided that the time was now. So far all I have watched on it is Thomas the Train but man let me tell you how lifelike those trains look! ;)

groom's cake

My brother in law Andrew got married this past weekend to an awesome girl named Krista. They met their senior year of high school and he has basically been waiting since then to get married! I will post pictures from the wedding soon but I just wanted to give you a sneak peek of the groom's cake (which I made!!)

After two attempts to bake the cake from scratch (I think I had a bad ingredient in there somewhere) I gave up and let Mr. Duncan Hines save the day. We transported the layers, icing ingredients, two mixers, and all other tools to Gainesville and I slaved away in the fellowship hall kitchen icing and icing and icing while Krista's family and friends were getting the decorations, flowers, and food done. I have to say I got more than a few confused looks about who was this random girl and more than a few questions about why was she making a cake in the kitchen. Eventually I think each person came and looked and asked. They were all super sweet and very complimentary which I needed because I was definitely winging the whole thing on the spot.

By the end I was tired of looking at chocolate, my hands were dyed red, and my Auburn spirit was getting mad but the cake turned out great and I was told it was yummy so yay for another successful cake!

bye bye school

Last Tuesday Micah had his end of the year party at Ebeneezer and Thursday was his last day. Micah had a rough start to the year, crying every time I dropped him off, but by the end was hopping out on his own and talking about 'his ms. kim' and 'his ms. norma'.

In my mind there were many pros and many cons to this school year and I am up and down about sending him anywhere next year. I might change my mind after the summer and if so hope I can find a place we are both happy with that have openings. Is it normal to be this confused about 3 year old church schools!? No matter what my feelings were about this year one thing I know is that I am thankful for his two teachers who loved him and that he loved and trusted too!

the party

Saturday was Connor's 1st birthday and his 1st birthday party. I am not a super themey person when it comes to parties and general decorating and Connor is too young to actually 'like' anything so we went with a circle thing. (sidenote: my cousin's wife pointed out that when it's a boy it's circles but with a girl it's polka dots. Never thought about it that way!) I found cute plates, napkins, and tablecloths at target with colorful circles on them, made a banner with circle scrapbook paper, a t shirt for connor with a #1 in circle fabric and bought bouncy balls (giant circles) for party favors.

We were missing a few loved ones at the party. The Moons couldn't make it because Steph and Silas were flying in from Lousiana that afternoon, Tim had to work, Keelie was sick so no Moseleys could come, David spent the party on my bed because he woke up sick that morning, Andrew and Krista signed a lease and needed to move into their new apartment and Katie and Jered were packing up and finishing their life in Statesboro, GA before their big move to Colorado. However our families are big enough that with even all those people missing we still plenty of family there and the Cardozas to top it off!

Connor had an ABSOLUTE BLAST at his party and Micah was beside himself with excitement that Connor got to have a party just like him. It was a very relaxed afternoon. We ate lunch outside, the kids played and played and played and played and played, opened presents, ate cake and just enjoyed being together and celebrating Connor (a.k.a Connorconnor, connorboo, squishy, brother)

warning: LOTS of pictures coming up

getting a quick pre birthday balloon workout in

playing with his present from zach and me

nana and mimi

playing with the bouncy balls

riding 'mater. micah picked it out 'for connor' all by himself

families merge

riding the horsey all over town with papa

me and my squishy

he acted like he was interested in opening presents

and I love his expectant look in this one

showing off his walking skills

Happy Birthday dear Connor

He played with the cake alot but i'm not sure how much he actually ate

Can't wait to see what year 2 holds!