Monday, March 23, 2009

House Divided

Two words....MARCH MADNESS. Gotta love it.



The Duke vs Texas game was an especially exciting one for our family as we have loyalties on both sides. As evidenced by the photos, we will let our boys wait until they are old enough to make the decision for themselves before we influence them. In the meantime, KJ can say "Go Duke" while holding up his Texas Long horns hand-sign. Poor kids may need counseling someday to survive this "holiday" at our house.
Time will tell who will win the family challenge this year! I can't wait until the boys can do their own brackets!!
ABL

Sunday, March 15, 2009

News FLASH...

This just in...
C-bug takes steps in public! That's right folks, our 14-month-old has FINALLY decided to start walking. For a while he would only walk when he thought no one was looking, but now he is very proud of himself. He giggles and chatters while he walks just to be sure that the world KNOWS just how amazing he is. He cracks me up! Check out my facebook for a link to some stinkin' cute video footage.

In other important news, KJ has a new knock knock joke (that he made up)...
KNOCK KNOCK
who's there?
BATS
bats who?
BATS ARE GOING TO EAT YOU UP

Where does he come up with this stuff? If your child is in his class at church, and your child happens to be having nightmares about bats, I apologize! He's kind of into bats right now and I have NO IDEA where it comes from. GROSS.

I know, right? Serious news around the Lewis house. Aren't you glad you took time to read this one?
ABL

Friday, March 13, 2009

Road Trip

My AMAZING friend Tara offered to drive with me to see my family last week. We may be crazy for thinking it was a fun idea to load up 4 kids under 3 into a suburban and drive for 12+ hours each way...but we all came back friends and can already laugh about it all. We did learn a very valuable lesson, though, on "what not to EVER say on a roadtrip with your children". I thought, for your sake, I would share these with you so that you don't make the same mistake we did.

1) Never say "Aren't you amazed at how great our kids are? So flexible, so laid back, we are so blessed" because you can guarantee that approximately 46 seconds after you utter those words, a complete and total melt-down will occur

2) Never say "Can you believe we are making such great time? We are right on schedule. I'm so impressed with us" because you can guarantee that at the next major city there will be a huge accident, shutting down the two major interstates and adding 2 hours to your trip.

3) Never say "Well, if we had to get stuck in traffic at least we are amazing navigators and found this incredible detour" because you can guarantee that your incredible detour road will merely cross over the interstate you were trying to get back to and will have exactly ZERO access to such interstate...adding yet another 30 minutes to your trip.

4) Never say "I'm positive we can make it 30 more minutes until the next town before we get gas. The car would have to be leaking gas to finish a 1/4 tank before then" because you can guarantee that the next time you stop you will have a scare where someone tells you that you car actually IS leaking gas (check out Tara's blog for an amazing indicator of the IQ levels we experienced at one McDonald's).

Yep, that about sums it up. We spent the rest of the drive just shaking our heads and saying "don't say it, just DON'T SAY IT".

Tara has some adorable pictures of our munchkins on the trip on her blog as well. Too bad we don't have a video documentary of the actual car time. It was AMAZING.

Thanks again, Tara. It was a blast!!
ABL

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Growing





The same only bigger...





















...our family is growing and so is our ride!
















Sweet baby sister is so high maintenance that she required a new vehicle (before she even arrived)! Not that I mind...owning a minivan is a dream come true for me. As excited as I was, though, to bring home the new wheels, there may or may not have been a few tears shed over leaving the Camry behind. I've had the car long enough that we pulled these out from under the seat before we left the car at the dealership.The Camry was the first car I purchased on my own, the car that I loaded up to move to Texas, the car I drove to work at my very first "real job", the first car I put Texas license plates on and the car that we washed in our wedding attire. While it is silly to "love" an inanimate object, I sure do love all of the memories that were packed in that little vehicle. So, it won't come as a surprise to you that I made the car salesperson pose for the below pictures.
Goodbye, Camry! You were an amazing car. (Even the salesperson could sense my mixed-emotions and put his arm around me as I handed over the Camry keys...how funny is that!)


Hello, Sienna, and the memories still to be made. KJ for one already thinks this car is the coolest thing ever and just likes to go for ride in it. A child after my own heart!


So, we're moving on to bigger and better things around here. Anybody need the Annie soundtrack on cassette tape?

ABL

Monday, March 9, 2009

To my FAVORITE...

Babe,
I'm so thankful that from your earliest days
the Lord was preparing you





to be an amazing husband




and the best Daddy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (a day late)!!

We all love you so much,
ABL, KJ and Cbug

Sunday, March 1, 2009

God be in ME!

Before KJ was born, I read an article in one of those "free from the doctor's office" magazines that actually had a profound impact on the way that I parent. It talked about being ok, as a mom, with letting there be a "Daddy way" and a "Mommy way". It reminded moms that many times dads feel pushed out of a key parenting role because their way of doing things. In other words, if Daddy is willing to help with bed time, maybe it is ok if Daddy wrestles right before bed time even if Mommy might have chosen to sit quietly and read stories. Or maybe it means that if Daddy is willing to give the kids baths you bite your tongue when he puts a little more water in the tub than Mommy might have. I'm so thankful that this lesson came across my path BEFORE we had children and that I, for some reason, actually payed attention. I totally could have been that nagging spouse in the area of parenting that wants everything done the way I think best. RRL is an amazing Daddy and because I sometimes actually step back and watch him parent, I've not only learned that it is ok for him to do things differently...sometimes, I've actually learned that maybe (JUST MAYBE) he had a better way to do it than I did. He's taught our boys lots of things, and I've learned a lot about him, too.

One of my favorite things that he taught KJ, is a little prayer that RRL learned at a youth conference. KJ does it every night and is now teaching it to Cbug. I thought some of you might like to teach it to your kids, too, so my lovely assistant (I mean, handsome) agreed to pose for a few demonstrative photos.

The prayers says...

"God be in my mind, and in my thinking"
(while pointing to your head)


"God be in my eyes, and in my seeing"
(while covering your eyes)


"God be in my ears, and in my hearing"
(while covering your ears)


"God be in my mouth, and in my speaking"
(while covering your mouth)


"God be in my life, and in my living"
(while pointing to your suspender straps)


"God be in my heart, and in my loving"
(while crossing your heart...or giving yourself a love squeeze!) AMEN!

Its such a simple, yet profound little prayer and I'm so thankful RRL brought it into our bedtime routine. Let me know if you try it at your house! (Oh, and try the give your husband a break thing, too...and hold me accountable to that while you are at it, ok?)
ABL