Ally Claire is Three!!

so, waaaaaaay back on June 10th, Ally Claire turned 3! So hard to believe! Time sure has flown for this little girl who's not so little anymore! I wanted Micah to post the NICU videos, but we just haven't had time to get around to it. Maybe next year. In the mean time...

We decorated (even though we didn't have a party).

She wanted "pank" cupcakes...and she got them, along with her requested supper of cinnamon rolls.

She got a new princess bike (and I don't have a picture of that for some reason).

Ally Claire, I love you so much it pure hurts, little girl! You have a head full of wavy hair and could care less if it's all in your face or not. Otherwise, you are the epitome of all things girly. You adore dresses, dressing up, high heels, purses, "jewels", and "Pitty tip toes". You will NOT be seen without your toe nails painted.


I don't think they have been bare for the last two years, to be honest. I painted them for the first time before going to the beach two summers ago! Your brothers are your best friends and worst enemies, but they love you just as much. (You are able to get them to play house, school and costume party.) You are a big daddy's girl, but love time with me, too. We had a blast this summer at camp, just us girls! You are braver in the pool this summer, paddling everywhere in your float. Your best friend is Jackson and you love church day! Unfortunately, you also like to call your brothers names and work the word "butt" into nearly everything you say. Some favorites these days are "chicken noodle weenie head" and "booty butt". I have no idea...

You are a delight, full of sweetness and sass in equal measure. I can't wait to see how you grow this year!

i have no idea...

within the last two days seth has said some funny stuff. here is your laugh to get you through the end of the week. warning, you may never look at intimate apparel the same way again.

while walking through walmart, we pass the ladies undergarments. while spotting a padded bra...wait...get the image in your head...he says:

"Hey Mama, what is that?"

i keep on strolling, not thinking twice about it. "It's a bra, Seth." To which he replies:

"Oh, like you could wear it on your face while you mow the grass?"

i had to stop the buggy and lean over on the bar i was laughing so hard. You see, Micah has terrible allergies and wears a mask that looks like this while he mows...so...you get it.

I've also been working on trying to write down some House Rules, some sort of physical reminder of how we should act and how we should help (more to come on that later.) so after church tonight i asked the kids what they thought the house rules were. the one they had to learn the hard way today was "keep your hands to yourself." i knew that one was coming. then seth said:

"and no kicking...except if you are wrestling or doing karate on each other."

clearly he gets it.

after a few minutes had passed they were telling the same mind-numbing joke over and over so it was obviously time for the quiet game (which i'm sure luke would like for me to tell you that he always wins.) after a minute or two of being quiet (and constantly reminding sissy what quiet actually means), seth apparently had something really important to say because he whispered,

"Hey Mama, can we pause this game for a minute?"

seriously...it's why i keep him around.

summer time tip

take those paper bathroom cups that your kids use and snip a little hole in the bottom and trim the sides down by 1/2-1/3. stick a popsicle through it and you'll avoid a ton of mess and stickiness!

summer time!!

i know y'all are getting used to my gaps in blog time (something i never intended) but i guess i also never intended to be this overwhelmed in motherhood. on sunday morning, our class teacher reminded us that our first area for mission work started in our very own homes. i don't know about y'all, but some a lot of days, i'm thinking that going out into all the world would be much easier. you hear what i'm sayin'?

i am so very glad that it's summer time because we aren't bound to a schedule every week. i actually only have 3 weeks where something specific is planned and the rest is up to us. there is always something funny coming out of one of their little usually smart mouths (see my facebook page for frequent updates on that front.) speaking of...i have been stopped a lot recently with people telling me that they love my status updates. i'm not sure how to feel about it. maybe they tell me that b/c i'm brave enough to keep it real? i don't know. my kids aren't perfect and i definitely don't try to only capture and relay the moments when they can be. i'm just a mom, trying my hardest, and failing every day and as seth would probably tell you, failing in a lot of ways, to get these little monsters humans to at least act like they are the species that i am. (seth is a complainer by nature. he's 5 and he's rotten. i'm apparently doing him an injustice by cooking fresh food every night...more on sunday's stand off later.)

so, all that to say this...we have been busy the last couple of weeks graduating from 1st grade, losing more teeth, playing baseball in 100 degree heat, throwing up b/c of it, making out summer fun charts, splashing in a blow up pool, counting down the days until the beach and i am counting down the days to school starting, baseball parties, bike riding, morning walks, hitting, crying, facebooking for sanity...you know...the usual.

i hope to report more frequently about all the fun things we want to do this summer, but for real moments, you know where you can look. my status updates frequently. it's cheaper than therapy.

kindergarten or bust

this little turkey is moving on to kindergarten! hard to believe. his teachers always tell me how sweet he is and i'm so thankful that they do (b/c that is NOT always the case at home!) i can't wait to see what he can do in "big school" this next year. i hope he is kind and takes the opportunity to reach out to others who might not make friends as easily as this kid who has almost never known a stranger. we were surprised and proud when his MMO director asked if he would lead the opening prayer at their end of the year program. she said he always says the sweetest ones and that does a mama's heart real good, y'all! we love you bubby!!

who needs wendy's?

peeps, it needs to be known that i absolutely adore most any kind of asian chicken salad. it's basically all i order anytime to go to applebee's and what i always used to get when the hubs wanted a chicken sandwich from wendy's (although the ones i make at home have way less fat...but whatevs. sometimes you just want the goodness, ya know?) anyway...sometime this last year, wendy's became dead to me when they REPLACED their oriental/asian/mandarin...whatever...chicken salad with the apple something or other salad. SO WRONG. i have been on the quest to make it the same way at home...the problem was that i couldn't find the dressing. and the dressing makes a lot of salads. especially if they are...we'll say "themed". today, i have achieved my goal. the mission is complete! it probably could have been done easier, but today is when the missing ingredient finally made it what i wanted it to be. the dressing needed a little bit of honey. i'm not a honey eater, so it was escaping me...until now!

so...if you ever liked the wendy's salad...here's what you need:

Lettuce (today i used what i had, which was butter lettuce)
1 Grilled Chicken Breast, diced or sliced (i used the pre-cooked frozen ones that i get at walmart and keep on hand alllllllll the time.)
Mandarin Oranges
Sliced Almonds (i used the Almond Accents roasted version)
Chow Mein Noodles
Publix brand Roasted Asian Sesame salad dressing
A Squeeze of Honey

layer as listed. mix a little bit of honey into your dressing and coat thoroughly. love it! a perfect summertime salad. you are welcome.

if anyone is actually still around to read this nonsense, i thank you. Real life is insane, as i'm sure it is for all of you. But we are wrapping up the school year/sports season, so I should have time to catch up soon!

103 hours

that is how long we were without power after what is reported to be the second deadliest tornado system in u.s. history ripped though our area on wednesday. i don't have pictures of the distruction as you couldn't get down into the effected (affected? i never know) areas unless you were there to clean. i haven't been down to help yet as i was more worried about making sure my kids were clothed and fed. but i really hope to soon. several families reached out to us and we are so very thankful to them for providing us a place to take a warm shower, wash a couple of loads of clothes and a warm meal. we kept our phones charged either by being in the car when we were out and about or at the church building.

luke has been out of school since wednesday and we won't know when they will go back as of yet. for sure they are still out tomorrow. the area damaged near our house (about 4 miles south to north east) cut through both routes we could take to get luke to school. we haven't been over that way since thursday, so i'm not sure what has happened there since then.

we were so very lucky that we only had one large tree down on our fence (which i posted to facebook). otherwise, we were completely fine (well, minus the power thing, but that really is so insignificant.)

our song leader from church lost their home, but fortunately the Lord protected them in their storm shelter during the 10 seconds that it pummeled everything around them.

i hope that you will continue to pray for the residents of middle/north alabama (and anyone else that was in the path) of this viscious storm. so many homes and businesses are still without power and so much else. this is a video that was put together by some of the men at our church of the efforts that have been going on out in our community.