March Madness

I'm back and I've got lots of pictures of stuff to fill you in on. First things first - I have my freedom back! About a week and a half ago we got a van - a white Toyota Sienna and I love it!!! It feels so safe. And as of yesterday, Jason also replaced his dying Mercury Sable with a black Kia Optima. His car was on its last leg and was going to need some major repair (plus it had no air conditioning so every summer he has sweated it out). It's official - we're a two car payment family :( Booo! But on the other side, it's amazing how God has blessed us to pay off some bills and save some money too so it really won't be so bad. Yay!

So, you may be wondering "What have you been up to?" Well I'll tell yah!

For St. Patrick's Day I made the kids green eggs. Emma loved it and thought it was fun but Aubrey...not so much. A child who normally eats up all her egg did not touch them on this day. She probably thought they were a vegetable. Despite from being born into a vegetable loving family, Aubrey has not grown to love them like we do....yet!!! There's still hope.

A couple weeks ago I noticed Aubrey was playing awfully quiet while I was putting laundry away and this is what I discovered...She had helped herself to my make-up drawer and was putting eye shadow all over her....eyes. She must watch mommy very closely although I have to say that I usually only put on eye shadow on Sunday's or if I'm going out so she did good knowing where to put the make-up on.

We also had some tree work done. Our neighbor was having her trees trimmed up and the guy offered us a deal if we had ours done at the same time so we had a tree trimmed up that was just about to touch the house and we had two dead trees chopped down. Timbeeerrr! You can see the guys off to the left pulling the tree. It was actually pretty cool to watch. They threw up a weighted rope to the top of the tree and allowed it to hook behind a branch and then proceeded to pull at it after the chainsaw cut was made. (Bree - Evan would have loved it). The good news is that we got some free mulch out of it. Here's a picture of the mulching process. They chipped the wood as it was cut down from the trees and we shared the ginormous mulch pile with our neighbor. I think it was something crazy like 12 cubic yards!! We still have to distribute ours which leads me to my next thing.
We have been taking on a landscaping project this spring. We want to make the front of our house more pleasing to the eye so we ripped out these ugly Boxwoods that we had on the front and back of our house (I think there were 14 total). It's liberating to see them gone. We've had lots of rain so we weren't able to work on anything this past weekend. I can't wait to show you before/after photos. It will look so much better once it's all said and done.

Then there was Easter. The kids had time to find their baskets before church surprisingly. and Emma's favorite thing in her basket was.....
her Bible!! We had friends over a few hours after church so despite my busyness in getting the house and food ready, I didn't get an Easter picture of both girls together :(


I couldn't resist this picture - her mouth is full enjoying a chocolate easter egg (for the first time - not her first time encountering chocolate but her first time with a chocolate egg).

Then this past Friday it was gorgeous outside!! We're talking 80 degrees so I met a few friends at the park for a picnic play date. The kids were exhausted when we got home and went to bed early. Emma was actually asking to go to bed and she never does that. After dinner, the girls had ice cream cones outside to celebrate the warm weather and here's what I captured. Kinda reminds me of the picture of Aubrey awhile back with banana in her mouth.
I love this picture - sharing. Emma devoured her cone but Aubrey took her time. Then Emma wanted some of Aubrey's so she gladly fed some of hers to her big sis.

Ho ho ho - looks like Aubrey ate an ice "Christmas" cone....get it, ice cream cone...ice Christmas cone...okay, that was bad but I just thought it up while I was typing and just had to put that in there. Maybe it will make someone laugh. At least the picture will - look at that face. Simply adorable!!

That's all folks - I'm outta here!!! Oh - did I mention I love my Toyota Sienna!!

It's not always easy for me to get on and do my blog as I would like to. As most of you know, I work from home via the computer in the wee hours of the a.m. and after Emma is up and I've finished my work, she begs me not to go on the computer again so....it's hard to get back on. I'll do what I can :)

A Different Shade of White

While our northern friends and family are seeing snow, we're seeing flowers. The Bradford Pear and Magnolia trees have started to blossom and it's beautiful. Warm weather is just right around the corner and I can't wait!

We played "house" outside today and Emma was serving up something yummy. She's been into the "pretend" cooking lately - mixing up twigs, leaves and dirt.
Aubrey was wearing this stethoscope as an accessory all morning.

We decided to take advantage of the weather and eat our lunch on the deck. The girls thought that was fun. When I was cleaning up, I noticed lots of smears on the sliding glass doors so I pulled out some Windex and started to wipe away all the fingerprints and food (yecht!). When I was almost finished, I noticed some orange smears on the side I already cleaned. We had sweet potato fries with lunch so I knew what it was but I didn't know where it came from. Although I had already wiped the girls hands, I decided to reinspect what I may have missed.


I discovered that Aubrey, unbeknown to me, shoved part of a sweet potato fry in her ear. Here's the proof...(I took it quickly and it turned out a little too blurry)

Campin' Out

So we've spent a lot of time at home lately since the accident. Here's some of the stuff we've been up to.

Drawing with chalk on the driveway....

Riding the car and scooter...
Okay so Aubrey can't really "ride" the scooter but she does like to climb on it and pretend she can like her big sis

More drawing ... apparently Aubrey makes a good canvas (Aubrey did it all except for the back which Emma was unwilling to confess at first). I don't think Aubrey can reach all the way back there and color perfectly straight strokes...

Making a cake for a friends birthday...Aubrey's 1st experience licking a beater. She did not want to give it up so once she licked it shiny and spotless I had her put it in the dishwasher for me so that she felt like she was helping me

And lots of clowning around.....

How to Dip a Chip.....

This is Aubrey and she's going to demonstrate how to properly dip a chip. (On a side note: we had Mexican for dinner last night so I made my homemade salsa. I think she liked it because she was eating it by the spoonful...literally)

Hi everyone...I just love my momma's salsa. Chips are good with it too....

First you take a chip, like this one here.....

Then you carefully dip the chip into the salsa & scoop - don't let it drop all the way in....

Put it in your mouth....

(giggle) this is good stuff....

And that's how it's done! Any questions?

Jason's First Photoshoot

Jason was feeling creative Saturday night and did a "photoshoot" before the kids went to bed. He was playing around with lighting and the pictures turned out amazing!! I love them because they're so raw. They look professional - what do you think?

I think this is my favorite photo of Emma & I now

Doing noses

This is probably the only one he tried to pose

Okay - this is my absolute favorite. Just look at those big blue innocent eyes and rosey cheeks. We're definitely going to have to frame this one. Jason has some great talent.

Emma took this one of her daddy - I think it looks great! She's been obsessed with our camera lately and she actually takes some pretty good pictures.

I love how sweet this one is. Aubrey was crying as she was tired and ready for bed. Daddy was snuggling her and Emma reached up her hand to try to comfort Aubrey too.

Cherish Each Moment....

Some of you may or may not know what has happened to us this week. Jason and I were to leave for our trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday morning from Philly airport but as we were headed up to Philadelphia on Tuesday, to drop off Emma and Aubrey at my sisters, we were involved in a very serious automobile accident. We left during a torrential rain storm and hydroplaned on Interstate 40 in Burlington, NC where we side-swiped an 18 wheeler on a busy highway. God's hand was upon us every second of those tragic moments and He allowed certain people to be there and situations to occur. This is what happened:

We were traveling on a four lane highway and we were in the lane second from the left - on the far left was a cement wall/divider. One moment we were laughing and enjoying one another's company and the next we were thrown into the spin of our lives. At first the car spun towards the wall and then Jason pulled us away which then spun us 180 degrees to the right where we were head-on, face-to-face with traffic. All I remember seeing was a big white semi headed right at us while we slid into his lane. As Jason was trying to turn us out of the trucks lane, Jason's door scraped the trailer and then the rest of that side of the vehicle smacked against the truck which then spun us back around another 180 degrees where we were facing forward. Jason looked in the rear view mirror and saw that the back window was blown out. Traffic was headed straight at us so he gunned it to the side of the road. It's amazing that we not only survived but that we all walked away unharmed. Jason said he felt our van starting to tip just before we hit the semi and it was actually the truck that protected us from what could have been much worse. Had we tipped and rolled....I shutter to think at what the outcome would have been. (Sigh) GOD IS GOOD!!! He allowed the semi to be there at just the right moment!

Right after we pulled over another vehicle pulled over to check on us. The truck driver stopped as well but further down the road once he was able to stop his vehicle. As the woman (Paige) approached our car, Aubrey gave her a big smile, a wave and a happy "hiiii." That's our happy-go-lucky girl! The first thing Emma said after we pulled over was "Is our car broken now?" That's the mind of our 3 1/2 year old who brought a quick snicker to a stressful situation. God allowed their little minds to be unaffected by the accident as well. Emma is just young enough not to fully comprehend what happened and what could have been.

Paige was a God send as she sat with us the entire time and allowed her vehicle to be our source of shelter as our van had shattered glass everywhere and no windows to block the incoming down pour. Paige was actually on her way back from a doctor's appointment that was scheduled for the next day. She had mixed up the dates and was initially annoyed but little did she realize that God had her there for a reason...to help our family. No one else stopped so we would have been outside in the rain waiting for an hour.

Then, as the tow truck driver came to help me shift some stuff around the car before he towed it (I was trying to move the kids clothes so that they would be somewhat protected from rain pouring in the windows) he noticed Emma's doodle board laying right by her car seat. This is what he saw....

Shortly before the accident Emma was having me draw some pictures for her. First she said "Draw Jesus and the children." Then she handed it back to me and said, "Draw Jesus on the cross." That was the last picture I drew only moments before the accident occurred. The tow truck driver pointed to the doodle board and said "That right there is the answer." I hadn't even realized it was there until then. I smiled with tears in my eyes and said "You are absolutely right." In that moment, seeing that picture I had drawn, brought me instant comfort that He was there the whole time and that we would all be okay.

After the police reports we're taken, Paige drove the kids and I a mile down the road to the next exit while Jason followed in the police car. We parted ways at the rest stop and we were on our own. Jason was still "technically" working so he had to field some phone calls for work, call the insurance company, rental car places and try to figure out what our next step was. After four hours and no rental vehicle in sight, we opted for a taxi and to stay overnight in a hotel with the hope of figuring out a way back home the next day. The taxi driver was a young, single guy and when he took us to our van to pick up what stuff we could take with us, he chatted with Emma in the taxi while Jason and I rummaged through the van. Surprisingly, she was not very shy and amongst other things, she told him how much she loved Jesus and how He protected us. It warms a parents heart to hear a complete stranger tell you how touched they were by your child's unashamed love for the Lord and said that he can only pray for the same when he has a child one day.

That evening, as we sat in the hotel wondering what the next day would bring, we received a call from one of our good friends who offered to come pick us up. We arrived back in Charlotte on Wednesday around noon and our normal daily life resumed...at least for the most part. Since we are without a vehicle (other than Jason's which he is using for work), the kids and I are hibernating at home. Jason will get what groceries we need for the time being and Emma's preschool and dance class will be on hold for now. We should hear back soon about our van and whether or not it will be fixed or totaled. Right now, the adjuster is thinking it can be fixed which is what we are hoping.
What truly matters is that we are safe, we are healthy, we have a warm bed and house to stay in, food to eat....life doesn't get any better. I feel so blessed with what we have. God has given us ALL we need.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God has a plan for our lives and while we are only able to see a little glimpse at a time - God sees the full picture. Good and bad...every situation and circumstance we are given can bring us closer to our Father if we let Him; and every situation and circumstance can mold us into the person He wants us to be.