Vacation 2011

Ben works for a family who rents out their beach house during the summer months, and as a Christmas present they gave us a weekend getaway in the off season. Which is precisely why we found ourselves vacationing in the Outer Banks in JANUARY!! Brrrr! But it was FREE, so we were definitely not complaining.

Plus, on the upside, when one is stuck inside on chilly days, there's absolutely no reason to change out of yoga pants, sweatshirts or slippers basically EVER.

Our days were filled with

LOUNGING...

 EATING...

And taking in the views

DAY:

EVENING:

But, by day number two, the children were bouncing off the walls and needing to do something besides boring, grown up stuff; being the adventurous parents that we are, we set off to do a riveting tour of a lighthouse.

Note: Even lighthouses are closed in the winter months.

Good to know.

When the lighthouse lost its appeal(which lasted roughly 45 seconds, tops) I thought I'd try to snap a few artistic photos of my family strolling along the picturesque boardwalk nearby.



"Hello, family?" "Could you please grab hands, act like you love one another and walk?"

"Terrific!" "Now...Laney, look back here at me and smile."

"Oh, oh, oh! Laney, stop! Watch out!"

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark.

Please take a moment and notice the look of concern on the face of her father. The man works in the ICU and is seldom phased by a minor bump.

However, it seemed like a big deal to her, and she begged me to go back to the beach house, change into yoga pants, brew a hot cup of coffee and dig into the cookies. I agreed. 'Cause that's just the kind of girl I am.;)

*It seems important to note that no children were harmed in the making of this post!

*And no artistic photos were captured!

Save the DRAMA for your Mama!

Lane, my one and only girl child, my offspring who is more like me than I typically like to admit, certainly is an

ADORABLE...

SILLY...

and LOVING child...

Except when she's NOT!

And, if you're a parent, you totally get this!!

 

Dirty, Tattered, Little Secret

I should probably be embarrassed to admit this to you, but in an effort to be transparent, I'm gonna let you in on a secret I've been hiding for while.

THIS...

THIS...

is what I found while doing laundry today. That's right. This WAS a dish towel.

Seriously, can someone please tell me why, for the sake of all things lovely, have I not thrown this old thing out years ago? Please say I'm not alone here! Please tell me you have a dish towel that looks exactly the same!

Why? When I can buy myself 10 dish towels for the bargain price of $11.99, do I continue to dry my hands on that thing?

In hoping that you all will not think less of me, I'll leave you with a glimpse of what my dishes have to look forward to tomorrow.

SCORE! And, just in the nick of time, that one was on its last thread:)

Music Makers

Tilden and Brennen have been taking cello lessons since September from the amazingly talented and gifted Mike Daniels.

I was able to follow along and practice with them all the way until lesson number TWO when it became painfully obvious that I'm absolutely no help and music is not my thing.

Actually, this fact has been clear since as early as I can remember. I have memories of laying in bed, as an 8 year old little girl, just praying that God would let me be able to SING! I would pray, pray, and then pray some more. Immediately upon finishing my plea, I would belt out a little song just to see if God had answered my request. I'm sorry to say that He did NOT!

So, as my friends in college would tell me, I mostly try now to FEEL the words in my heart.:) So disappointing, really, I wanted it so badly. But, instead, God blessed me with this man who, shall we say, CAN carry a tune. Basically, he's as good as they get, as far as I'm concerned. My boys seem to be taking after their father in this area. THANK YOU, JESUS!

The boys have now advanced to the place where we have had to get a cello for each of them. Until now, they have been trading one cello back and forth, which was making practice time lengthy.

I wish you could hear all the pleasant, sometimes NOT, music going on around our house these days!:)

{Aren't they cute?-Brennen and Tilden}

A finished project, sort of!

With our enormous family, comes an enormous amount of people at EVERY gathering and party we have. It seems to me that when you have a crowd there are never enough horizontal surfaces available. With that in mind, Ben has been slaving away building a table for under one of the large picture windows in my kitchen.

We've needed something that could be used as a drink/dessert station for a while now, but I haven't been able to find anything that's within my budget of, ummmm, not very much:)

You know what they say: necessity is the mother of invention.

And, Since we've done some rearranging of our school room, I was able to repurpose almost all of our old desks into this project. The supplies purchased totaled a whopping $30.00! So, all in all, a great value, if you ask me.

Here is a look at the project from start to almost finish.

{This is pretty much how the old desks looked}

{The $30.00 was used mostly on the wood needed to trim it out and build the slats across the bottom}

{The table was sanded, primed and then painted in my all time favorite color, SLATE, by Restoration Hardware}

{Finished slats. LOVE them}

{Side view}

And, DRUM ROLL, Please!!

{The finished product!}

Because I love it, an up close shot of my antique olive jar.

{good looking, right?}

All I need now is to turn the curtains that used to hang in the space into a soft, sloppy roman shade. If I only knew someone who could do this type of thing. *cough, cough* Molly, HELP!?!



A family is born

The journey that two people make on the way to becoming parents is never easy, but the end result is ALWAYS worth the cost. This past Monday I had the privilege of watching those I love walk into parenthood for the first time with strength and determination.

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new."-Rajneesh

My baby sister became a MOMMY, and she's forever changed.

Here is a peek into that beautiful transformation.

Monday afternoon around 12:15.

We can't keep smiling forever. They call it labor for a reason.

Molly did a phenomenal job working through the uncomfortable, pitocin induced contractions, and Dana was a rock, by her side every step of the way. An epidural was offered, and Molly, being the smart girl that she is, took them up on the offer.:)

Epidural #1: FAIL

No big deal. We're in a hospital, there's more where that came from.

Epidural #2: SUCCESS!!

Relief

Now that she's feeling good and resting, it's time for some TLC from the girls.

It's getting late; Molly and Dana are trying to rest up for the long night ahead. Meanwhile, the ladies in the waiting room are getting restless and loopy. 2:00 a.m. will do that to you!

Molly makes it through the night, working her way through painful contractions. The midwife decides that it's time to get to pushing.

She works tirelessly for three hours to push the baby out, but baby Canby is positioned in such a way that it is impossible.

This is where things got scary. Doctors rush in using words like vacuum, forceps, c-sections and we must deliver in the operating room. Everything is happening so quickly now. Dana, Mom and I are quietly weeping, but Molly is focused on getting her baby out safely and quickly.

Operating room dress is given to Molly and Dana.

We immediately send out texts asking friends to pray for a safe delivery.  And with tears in all of our eyes, they quickly wheel her away.

They take her into the OR and put the three of us outside the door to wait.

Dana is allowed back and given a stool right next to Molly. As we pray, Molly pushes six times while the Dr. uses the vacuum. When that doesn't work, the forceps are used for the next three pushes. Sweet Ezekiel Douglas Canby is born at 7:55 a.m. Weighing in at 8 lbs. and 11 oz. 22 inches long.

First family photo only moments after the birth.

A Mother is born.

"Aside from new babies, new mothers must be the most beautiful creatures on earth."-Guillements

A Father is born.

Baby Zeke is surrounded with love from the moment of his birth.

Colleen, is now our "family nurse." She is the same nurse who helped to deliver baby Dave just four days earlier. She stayed late to be with Molly in the OR.

She is already saving the date in April to be with Dee for her delivery.:)

Grandma Claudia flew through the night, all the way from California, to be with Dana and Molly.

We had a welcome home sushi party where Zeke got to meet ALL his cousins and the whole crazy family for the first time. Lucky guy!

However, his favorite new friend of the night, by far, was his cousin Dave.

We love you Baby Zeke, and we are blessed to have you as a part of our family.

Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.