Apple Eaters

Holden is getting so big. She has stayed up until 7:30 the past two nights and I am SO thankful. This gives me at least a full hour with her each night. And it allows Davis and Holden to play together more too. Last night, Davis was snacking on some green apples and Holden got a hold of one. She LOVED it and he was so proud of her. So here are some funny and fuzzy phone pictures from our play time last night. And below these, I will share a funny story.

This guy is so close to being in underwear full-time.

 

 

 

So last night we were driving home, and I told Davis I loved him and asked him if he would live with me always. He said "yes" and then I said "Okay good. You can always live at my house."

He paused and thought...and then he said "No mommy. You can live in your own house. I am going to live at my house. And it will be green, like Honey's." Well there you go. At three years old? That's too young to be planning out his bachelor pad if you ask me.

Little Princie's Dedication

Holden was dedicated at our church on Sunday- she looked as cute as a button- seriously I couldn't get over it, she looked so sweet (pics to come)...and of course she acted so dear too. There were four little boys, and then little Holden. When we carried her up in her little pink dress, with her little flower headband, you could hear an audible gasp. Okay, I know...I'm her mom. I get it. But again, this is my blog, and I feel like if it's appropriate anywhere, it might be here. Ha.

So enough self indulgence about my doll of a little girl.

The best part of it was the prayer our pastor prayed over her. I won't get it exactly right, but because I want to remember the gist of it, I'll try to catch the important parts here. He prayed for her that she would have great friends, even early on, that she could walk through life with, and that she would remember how special she was- simply because her heavenly father made her with great care and detail. And that she would be content. That she would know the love of her Father through her parents and family.

And I really thought it was the most important prayer. The most important things to pray. That she find great people to go through life with. That she could find her confidence in the one thing that isn't fleeting. That she would be content and at peace.

I look at her. And I look at Davis. And I am reminded that regardless of what comes my way in this life- I, we, have been given the most amazing gifts of all. And when I see what God has given me, just looking at them, I am both incredibly thankful and also amazed by His love, for me.

My grandparents were there, Honey was there, Nikki was there...so it was a special day.

I love you miss Holden, little princie. I love the kind and gentle heart that I already see in you. I love who I know you will become, and that I get to be a part of it.


Funny side note: I was trying to explain to Davis that Sunday was a special day for Holden, that she was like a little princess that day. So to be silly and fun, I sat Holden on his little upholstered chair and said "It's little princie's day. She's a little princess. So now we all have to do what she wants..." and then I made up all these funny things like "Okay, now she wants you to get her that toy...and now she wants you to rub her back..." and he thought it was hysterical.

This morning he looked at me out of the blue and said "I want to be little princie now..." Smart kid.

"I lub you, my sweetieheart"

Davis looked at me yesterday after church and said "I'm your sweetieheart..." with such a serious and sincere face. I said "You're right, you sure are..." and grinned thinking about how I didn't realize that I ever call him my sweetheart, but that I do, and he remembers it.

Kids remember everything you say and do- whether they can articulate it or not- and I believe it's all the little confirmations that you give them that makes them feel so loved and complete.

Last night, again, he gave me a hug and said "I lub you, my sweetieheart" and I almost fell over. So sweet. He also told Nikki that he loved her more than ALL the mack trucks, all the ment mixers, ALL THE VEHICLES! What a passionate little man.

I'm going to write about our awesome thanksgiving at Garcitas ranch, as well as Holden's dedication yesterday, but I'll save those until I have pictures. I think I accidentally left the camera in Honey's purse. Ooops.

In the meantime, it's starting to look like a Christmas at our house! I hung my new wreath from Red, we got out the vintage light up Ho Ho, and I ordered a few things from Etsy. Here are some pics. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

I got this little gem from TheCoinLaundry.

And this print from ExLibrisJournals. I'm going to frame it, I think.

This vintage Ho Ho pillow from CedarStreetCreations.

And a few little headbands for Holden from Bloomz. She has a couple already, but this one, in particular, is made to match her Christmas dress. I love how tiny and delicate they are. I cannot stand when little girls have flowers and bows the size of their heads. Satellites, I call them. But I get it, a lot of people like them, so que sera sera.

And now I'm getting excited for our Noonday Party Sunday. I hope it's a success- for our friends in Africa.

What I love Tuesday

In honor of Thanksgiving...

I love that when Davis sees something Christmas related he says "It's a christmas!" We just hung up our advent calendar (thanks Nanny) and he is just DYING to open it.

I love that Davis thinks a hug and a kiss are inseparable.

I love that Holden is almost always standing at her crib when I walk in in the morning- and lately she shrieks with excitement- just dying to be picked up.

I love pineapple. It's really so good. So good that sometimes I eat too much and then my mouth hurts.

I love being surprised with kindness.

I love shopping for little girl clothes. Seriously. I can't stop.

I love that Holden has learned to fake cry. It really cracks me up.

I love the Christmas CD I bought at Starbucks this morning- it's got Paul McCartney, Fun, She & Him, and some other fresh and fun ones.

I love the new Sweedie hat I just got for Holden. One of my co-workers married a woman from Sweden- they all wear these cute hats so she started making them here. Can't wait to see it on her.

I love that I am about to have 5 days off. THANK GOD. Couldn't have come sooner.

I love turkey chili. With a little velveeta. A can. A box. We are obsessed.

I love that Davis laughs his head off when Holden grabs his face or his hair. He thinks it's so funny.

I love this glitter reindeer. I want to make one.

I love mashed potatoes. And brown gravy. Not white, blech. I hope I get access to some good ones Thursday.

I love my girlfriends- including my sister and my mom.

I love that Davis tells Bennett to "take two feet off the table, daddy. they go on the ground."

I love that Katie will be home in a couple weeks. I cannot even believe that.

I love that what is true today may not always be true tomorrow. PROBABLY will not be true tomorrow.

I love that out of the blue last night, Davis randomly said "I want Nikki to come to my house" (yeah, he said Nikki, not Mikki...boo hoo hoo) and she was also randomly plannning on coming, unbeknownst to him.

I love the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving if I don't blog before Thursday. I'll take pics over the break.

Be happy. Be full. Be free. Be thankful.

D for Davis

Davis keeps seeing "Ds for Davis!" everywhere we go. It's very exciting. I can tell he feels like he is personally featured, each time he sees a D for Davis, whether it's on a road sign, a license plate, or on the Cars movie.

Speaking of D for Davis- here are some pics from his little birthday party at Pheel's! He keeps saying "I want to have my birthday party again. I want to have it at Pheel's, with cake and presents!" Sometimes he even asks Bennett and I to sing the birthday song to him. I get it. I love birthdays and always wish mine lasted longer too.

I cannot believe that out of all these pictures, I didn't get a single one with him. Boo. :(

 

I love that Bennett makes his cake every year. What a good dad...and baker too!

And B and Corky brought a real live monster truck!! Such a big hit.

Muscle men.

And Honey and Mikki got him a John Deere tractor. Which he LOVES.

Hanging with a few of his buds. Eating that awesome cake.

Bored.

Katie always teases me because one time in college I came home from school and said "I need a change. I can't decide whether to cut my hair or break up with my boyfriend."

I feel that way these days. Not about the same things of course...I clearly don't want to break up with my boyfriend, but I am kind of bored. Not KIND OF...but REALLY...bored. I need some sort of change, and I'm trying to listen and understand what God, and my gut, are telling me, but right now I feel pretty clueless. And its the worst feeling.

I don't ever want to become those grown-ups that just got so practical and kept doing what they were doing, where they were doing it, with the same people they were doing it with, just because that's what they were doing. That would be the worst.

Anyway. That's how I'm feeling today.
Let me know if you have any ideas.

umm, poop.

Davis thinks it is really hysterical to talk about poop these days. So, while I am more inclined to just blow it off, knowing that making it a bad thing makes it WAY more interesting, for the sake of his classmates, I've been trying to get him to tone it down.

"I'm going to put poop in this garbage truck, mom."

"Davis, we don't need to talk about poop."

"Yes we do."

"Davis, come on..."

10 minutes go by.

"Davis, what is your garbage truck's name?"

"Umm, poop."

"Davis, his name is not poop. What is your truck's name?"

"Umm, peep."

So there you go. Lots of poop talk these days. Such a boy.
In other, more ladylike news, Holden has her first tooth! Yahoo. Honestly, I was starting to wonder...and to be even more honest, I was thinking "What if her teeth don't come in? Do they make baby dentures? Poor thing. It would be horrible to have to have dentures. As a baby." HAHAHA. I really thought that.

Also, you will not believe this. Thursday at 1:00 a.m. Holden woke up crying. She was not miserable, but just sort of sad. I figured her little tooth was hurting her, so I rocked her and laid her back down. As I laid her back down, in the dark, I felt something like crumbs or sand all over the bed. I thought that Davis had probably put a cookie in there or something, so I just changed the sheet and went back to bed. As did Holden.

The next morning, I was changing her and I noticed something sort of orangey/yellow on her shoulder, and some stuff that I can only describe as chili powder. It was also on her stuffed animal. I looked everywhere but couldn't figure out what it was. She was happy, so we went on about our day. I took Davis to school, and then headed to the grocery store. As I was pushing her in the cart, I noticed that her left ear was caked with the same stuff in her bed.

Immediately, I knew that her ear drum had to have ruptured. It was all over her bed. BUT...she was pretty content still. A little fussy, but not screaming misery like you would expect.

Anyway, took her to the doctor, sure enough, MAJOR ear infection. I felt so bad and I could tell the doctor was looking at me like "Umm, hello. How did you not notice?" But she is so sweet. She never complains. She is such a little darling. I mean, she went right back to bed after her ear drum must have ruptured. WHAT? I can't even take it.

So that is what is going on with us! This time change is throwing. me. off. I like it in the a.m. but hate leaving the office when it's dark. Davis always says "is it nigh night time?" when i pick him up. :-/

This weekend I'm going to my first Trade Days with a few girlfriends. One of my friends, Courtney, has been wanting to go for a while, so we're going to drive over for the day. I'm super excited to have the day just to hang out and be fancy free.

And Christmas is coming! Well Thanksgiving first...but you know what I mean. Happy Tuesday.

My mom...

Isn't this a great picture of my mom?
I think so. Nikki took it over lunch the other day.

Davis is THREE

Davis turned three Wednesday. He was not spoiled at all. Just had a little dinner party the night before, opened two presents the night before, had new jammies for the night before, opened a really cool TOW TRUCK when he woke up, and a few more presents from Nikki and Honey, had a cupcake in the morning, put on his DAVIS Monster Truck t-shirt, had a Thomas the Train cookie cake at school, and then ended the day with the other presents from Nikki and Honey.

Poor kid. ;-)

Here are some funny pictures from the party at his school. I was trying to get pictures of Davis and then all these little people were lined up by me saying "Can you take MY picture?" It was so fun. Davis wanted to eat that cookie cake and get home where he wanted to play "lots of times" with his tow truck. HE LOVES IT.

 

Horrible picture, but the only one I could get...

 

For breakfast. From Honey and Mikki.

 



 

Hudson.

 

 

Davis with Ben and the twins in his class.

 

Adam. Maybe this is the kid who made the dinosaur sounds. Maybe. 

 

They asked me if I wanted colored or B&W frosting, I hesitated and then thought "Who am I kidding? It's a cookie cake. For three year olds. Colored icing please. The Works."

 

Davis and one of his teachers, Mr. Justin, who happened to share the same birthday.

He couldn't wait to get that first bite.

Halloweenie

A Transformer, The Hulk and two M&Ms went trick or treating...

Abuelo's.

Tonight we went to Abuelo's for dinner. It's a mexican food restaurant sort of on the way home from picking Davis up, and right near the mall, where I was picking up a cookie cake for Davis to bring to school tomorrow on his 3rd BIRTHDAY!

It's not amazing...but every time I go, I'm surprised by how much better it is than most mexican food restaurants in Austin. We don't go there very often, like at all. In fact, tonight as we were sitting there, I looked at Bennett and said "this is pretty good. We never come here. In fact, last time I came here, i was pregnant with you! (looking at davis). Then I paused and said "Wait. Literally the last time we ate here was three years ago to this very day. The night before Davis was born."

So, let me capture this...

Three years ago, Davis took me for dinner and we didn't know it was our last date EVER as married people without kids, but I did eat jalapenos and ancho fudge pie to see if I would go into labor...and to our surprise, later that night I did just that.

Fast forward three years later, we show up at the same restaurant, the night before Davis' birthday and realize that the last time we were there was the night before he was born. And now it's the night before his birthday. Three years later. WHAT???? EEEK! CRAZY!!!

Anyway, I cannot believe my sweet boy is going to be three tomorrow. I love him so.

Well Said.

Some quotes that are really speaking to me these days...