"Helping" Daddy...

I've mentioned this before, but I'll write it again. Brady LOVES to be outside. He points to the door or window and used to say "side"..... now it comes out more like "uh-side." So last weekend when Chris mowed the yard for the first time this season, we all went out to help... more like watch. Brady decided he would like to help daddy sweep off the sidewalk. Well I couldn't help but snap a few photos of daddy's little helper.

Okay, so he didn't actually help clean up the grass at all. He spread it around a little bit, but had a great time wielding the broom.

And how on earth could you not smile when you see this face? What a sweet boy. (Oh - and his daddy put him in that Cowboys shirt. I'm thinking it was laundry day.....)

Old Friends...

My dear friend Leah Hickman. Let me tell you how I met her. In 2003 while living in Dallas, I heard a radio ad for the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I was inspired to attempt the adventure. In order to participate, walkers had to pledge to raise $2100 for breast cancer research. Once I registered, I was given the name of a team captain who had volunteered to train the group of walkers in our area. By my lonesome, I went to the first walking meeting and started training every Saturday with an amazing group of women. Leah was one of them.


We began to walk and talk, at some times for hours. Our team was the Asphalt Angels. Believe it or not, they are STILL walking together as a group!

When we started training, Leah had recently lost her dad when we met and during our training, her mom, Sara, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a tough time for Leah and her mom. Today, Sara is cancer-free. Since our 3-day walk in 2003, Leah got married, had a son Tommy (who is the same age as Kennedy) and when he was just a few weeks old, they moved to Longview. She also had a daughter, who is the same as Brady!

So since Leah lives in Longview, which is about an hour from here, we try to get together to catch up, trade kid stories, commiserate about the hectic nature of our lives... and we also try to RUN! Yes, we have moved on from walking to running. Our walking friends would not approve. We got together last weekend to run a Longview 5K race. Good earth!? It was HILLY! I had no idea Longview had such big hills!!

Leah is the kind of friend you can not see for months at a time and then pick right back up where we left off. She is a wonderful friend and I am lucky to have her in my life.

The joys (and smells) of motherhood......

When Chris is out of town, it's NUTS during the morning routine. We have to leave the house much earlier than usual, which typically means I have to wake up the kids. This morning, I started waking up Kennedy and then went to finish getting ready... and left Brady to sleep for an extra 10 minutes. That meant I would just pluck him from the warmth of his bed and throw in the car... PJs and all.

One quick tangent: He has been eating A LOT of apples lately. A lot = 2 or 3 per day. On top of that, he is learning to drink from a regular cup so he drinks tons of water. He likes to practice big-kid-cup drinking.

SO - since he is eating lots of apples and drinking lots of water - yup! You guessed it! Lots of poo! This morning was no exception. The first thing he told me when I walked in his room ... "Poo poo!" But there is no time to change the diaper before we get to daycare. Kennedy will miss the daycare bus to Legacy, so we hop in the car and go. We get to Cypress Run, I get Kennedy to her room and then head to Brady's room. Don't worry - I wasn't THAT parent who dropped off a poopy kid in his pajamas. I changed his clothes and his *NASTY* diaper and got him settled in before I dashed off to work.

When I got back in the car, I took a deep breath and started my 30-minute drive to work. It's a part of my day that I actually enjoy. Me and my 30 minutes can just enjoy the quiet. But on this drive, I was not enjoying myself because of the wretched stench! I was blessed/cursed with an amazing sense of smell, particularly from pregnancy on. I can smell a fart a mile away. So when I couldn't get Brady's nauseating poo smell out of my nose, I rolled down the windows a little bit to circulate the air. When that didn't help, I wondered if the poo had leaked in his car seat. Nope. Then it hit me - it was ME! I pulled my shirt up to my nose and.... WHAM!??! I started to gag.

Apparently the stench had seeped through Brady's pajamas and rubbed off on my clothes. You KNOW it was a strong smell to be able to transfer from one piece of clothing to another. SERIOUSLY!?!!

By the time I figured out where it was coming from, I was half-way to work. Being the only store open before 8:00 a.m., I held my breath (literally) and walked into Walmart to buy a shirt to wear to work. Ten minutes later, I walked out with a $3 shirt and a little treat for myself.

Happy Wednesday!!!!! (I think.......)

Books with Brady

The past two nights, all this sweet boy wanted to do is read books. Book, after book, after book, after book.....

We migrate to his room or the office (where the bottom shelf is jam-packed with books) and we start reading. We read at our normal bedtime routine - we read to both kids - but Monday night, two books turned into eight. But how on earth do I tell those puppy dog eyes that we can't read anymore. Uh, you DON'T! You keep reading!

Tonight, he crawled into my lap with his truck book. (Note to self: Buy Brady some BOY TOYS! Kennedy's hand-me-downs are not fun for him anymore. He is interested in trucks and dinosaurs!) So he climbed into my lap and kept saying... "More?" So more books did this tired mama read.

But as I think about the endless "to do" list (clean kitchen, pack bags, grad school homework), I purge my brain of all things unrelated to this sweet face and our books... because before I know it, he'll be graduating from high school and I'll be begging for these snuggle days again. So two books or ten - we'll read until he passes out.

(Kennedy - if you are reading this, you were outside playing with your friends! Snuggling with mommy is NOT high on your priority list these days...)

The Ballet with my Tiny Ballerina

This is Kennedy's third year of dance and this year, we are taking classes at the Shreveport Dance Academy, which is where the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet gets many of their dancers. I, not being a dancer, had no clue that THE ballet was housed through this academy! Lucky for us! AND - even better was this season's feature was The Wizard of Oz! Kennedy loves the movie... (remember she was Dorothy for Halloween?). So of course I bought tickets as soon as I could, which put us on the second row. My sweet girl was SO excited!


Okay, mom was a little excited too! Kennedy loved every minute of the show. She got up at intermission and walked down to see the orchestra. She waved to the musicians. Her eyes lit up when Dorothy danced across the stage. She clapped at all the right places. It is such a joy to see her happy.
Conveniently on the way out, we saw DOROTHY!! Kennedy begged me to stop and get her autograph... I suggested we try a picture instead. She stared at her, looked at her ruby (ballet) slippers, and smiled SO BIG!

On the way out, I asked Kennedy if she wanted to dance in a ballet like The Wizard of Oz one day. This is how the conversation went.

Mom: "Do you think one day YOU would want to dance on stage like that?"

Kennedy: "I think so, but I might be scared and shy...."

Mom: "When have you ever been shy?"

Kennedy: "Well mom, that would be a very hard performance."

Whether or not Kennedy decides to continue dancing as she grows up, she will always be my bright eyed, NOT shy daughter.

Painting With a Twist

My friend and sorority sister Jean McQuaig Beauclair opened a new business in town called Painting With a Twist. It's a studio where an art teacher takes you step-by-step through the process of painting the canvas selected for that class. Oh... and there's WINE!


I've been twice since it opened and I LOVE it! I'm a crafty kind of gal anyway, but this was so much fun! I painted this ballerina for Kennedy's room. I love how everyone's painting looks different! My sweet friends made this even more fun... Deanna, DeAnn, Francesca, Deni, and Jean.
And at my second attempt, I painted this slinky (and somewhat curvy) little black dress. It is such a great getaway. And in two to three hours, you walk away with a beautiful canvas. You should try it!

Overcoming Fear

My sweet daughter has always been a little skiddish. Okay, skiddish is an understatement. When she was two years old, she wouldn't step in the grass barefoot. Yeah. I know.

But I have seen a dramatic change in her since kindergarten. Going to big kid school has been a tremendous confidence boost for her. I thought being amongst the smallest ones in school would have the opposite effect. She was a little shy at first, but now - she's swinging from the trees... literally!
This is her flying down a... ZIP LINE! (And yes, she is in her ballet uniform... we went straight from ballet class to a birthday party.) She climbed the rock wall to the top of the tree house and stood at the top of the zip line for a few minutes... contemplating...
...and then she held on tight to the handlebars, hiked up her legs, and WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Do you see that smile? Love it.

And for Christmas, we bought her roller skates. She's been skating around the house (on the carpet) for weeks... maybe months. Then she started skating on the tile, but ONLY if she's holding onto the cabinets or a wall or a chair.
And then suddenly.... she decided she was ready to venture outside. She started skating (translation = walking) on the grass. And then I held her hand and we slooooooooooooooowly skated on the concrete.


And now look at her! Skating on the sidewalks without holding my hand and sliding down a zip line with the BIGGEST smile on her face. My baby girl is overcoming her fear, one small step at a time. And I couldn't be more proud of her.