A quick 'before we head out' pic

London's teacher is the best ever. Here's a picture of Lu at school writing her favorite letter on the white board. She makes my heart want to bust wide open. Gah. Love her so, so much! Get ready for the next "Londonisms" post. She's dropped some serious word nuggets lately! Funny little dude!

Halloween 2013

London and I planned to go to a pumpkin patch with Jill, Kurt, and the boys, but the day before we were supposed to go, I had this overwhelming unsettled feeling over it. We cancelled, went to church, and ran into Barry's family before we headed home. Even though Barry was steadily shaking his head no, I solidified plans with myself to go buy pumpkins and show up at the Rhea's house, thereby forcing his hand at some good, old fashioned pumpkin carving. He ended up napping through the whole thing but Lala was spitting pumpkins out like it was her JOB! She was not messing around! The kids were interested for the first 10 minutes, then they were totally done with the whole pumpkin show. Kids. 

Luckily, I got some sweet hangs with the first born, which delighted me to no end! I'll always be a sucker for Charley Rhea. There's just something special about your first true love!

At some point, I went inside to grab something, came out to see the kids playing in the woods and had to have this convo: 

Me: 'London, is that your bare naked butt?'

Lu: 'Yes ma'am.' 

No clue. 

We, of course, tagged along for the Thomas family pumpkin carving also. Kurt was so incredibly patient with the kids this afternoon! The whole activity took forever, but Kurt was totally content to let Knox and Lu scoop out every single seed! He is a good, good man. 

They are all just too cute for words. I loved this picture! (Courtesy of Jillian.)

London had a blast at school on Halloween! They took a hay ride...

… dressed up in costumes….

… and had a 'trick-or-treating' party for lunch!

I loved having lunch with these two fun little nuggets!

The forecast called for rain on Halloween night, so we met up with friends and headed out early. I was glad we did because we were home and tucked in bed at a reasonable, school night hour! 

London was Princess Ariel and Knox and Lucas were Minions. Watching Lucas wobble around like a true minion with his gurgled little boy speech was too much. They were hilarious in their get ups!

I was pretty convinced that London dressed up as the most beautiful girl alive. My heavens. I couldn't stop looking at her. Just beautiful. 

I love it when the home owners dress up! This neighborhood is such a great place to go! All the people are as nice as they can be! 

This house had great decorations! Well done!!

Greatest. Family. Ever. 

Again, with all the adorable. 

Poor Lizzy and Caden were sick on Halloween but sweet Lauren was determined to let them have some fun! They went to the library earlier in the night and got to have a warm, inside version of trick-or-treating!  (Wait. Im not sure where this picture came from because their costume pictures are next! Oh well!)

This terrifying piece of man was on candy duty while the kids were away!

The rain ended up holding off until late that night so it was a perfect halloween this year! 

The Rocky Horror Masquerade Ball

The weekend after Emmaus, my two best friends in the world and I went out for a long overdue girls night! (Side note: my separate BFF's have now become mutual best friends so everything in my life is firing on all cylinders!!! Hooray!!) We went to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the amazing Alabama Theater. It only seemed fitting to spend the weekend before getting all filled up with the Holy Spirit then 7 days later, go to watch a bunch of drunk boys dressed up like girls prance around a stage all night. Life has its twists and turns and I LOVE IT! 

The AL Theater is Ahhhhhh-mazing. Seriously. Drive to Bham and lets go. One of my very favorite places here! 

Happiness!

I had never seen Rocky Horror before so I was totally confused why the tickets said to bring rice, water guns, newspaper, toast, toilet paper, playing cards, and flashlights. Hannah explained that the show is all very interactive. People scream vulgar and ridiculous things during the movie and throw items around the theater that correspond with the scene playing. 

Hannah acted in this play in college and knew EVERY vulgar/silly line to scream! It was SO awesome and hilarious! Especially coming from a girl with the biggest heart you've ever met!  All the people around us were loving Hannah's depth of knowledge and spent the last quarter of the movie befriending her on Facebook! I was all 'BACK UP OFF MY BEST FRIEND!' cause seriously, I can't have anyone distract Hannah from time with me. RUDE. 

Things were a tad bit weird… but in a 'glad I know what all the hoopla is about now' kind of way! 

The post show floor! God bless the poor clean up team!

{I love you, you gaurenteed bringer of good times!}

This picture is only too realistic. Minus being all dressed up, this is just about every day for us.  Me assaulting Jill with some best friend loving, still hanging on tight to that french fry in my hand. :/

My friends are high class. They missed out on the goodness that is a 16 oz PBR. 

As fabulous, wonderful, and amazing as girls night out was, it was still a joy to get a 6 am wake up call from this little ray of sunshine. We decided to stay in our PJ's and pop on down the street to Waffle House for breakfast. Our waitresses name was Taylor and she and London were in love with each other by the end of our meal! Both of them had a special brand of joy and it was adorable to watch them make fast friends! 

I've been promised another night out for my birthday and there is no measure to gauge my excitement over it! LET'S DO THIS, LADY FRIENDS!

Wrestling with God

My small group is working through Beth Moore's 'Beloved Disciple' study right now. It is about the life of John and is so, so good. In today's homework, we are studying the short period of time (after Jesus' crucifixion) when John finds out that his brother James was martyred and his best friend was imprisoned but escaped because God sent an angel to rescue him during the night. We're looking at the wave of emotions that John must've been riding. How he alone could've felt this way because he and his brother were extremely close and rarely ever left each others side. Peter was his best friend. No one else could've shared the intense emotional response that John surely had.

Beth writes this:

"The intensity of your solitary estate is often most obvious when you fight to reconcile the facts of life with the words of faith. Solitude is not so much the place we find answers, as it is the place we decide if we're going on, possibly alone- without them. Many of us will. Why? Because the privilege of wrestling with such a holy and mysterious God still beats the numbness and pitiful mediocrity of life otherwise. Sometimes we don't realize how real He is until we've experienced the awesomeness of His answerless presence. He knows that what we crave far more than explanations is the unshakeable conviction that He is utterly, supremely God. "

Gosh. YES. When there are questions, when there is hard, no answer ever satisfies better than having the presence of the sovereign God in His fullness. Even if He is silent, He is better.

Mom's #2

While I was away at Emmaus, two of London's other 'Moms' stepped in to babysit for me. I am incredibly thankful for the way the people in our life care for my little heartbeat. What a satisfying feeling it is to leave your kid and know they are being lavishly loved on. I'm so thankful for Lala and Hannah for loving London like they do!

Lauren kept London from Thursday- Sunday afternoon. I knew London would be fine but I was not expecting every phone call to go like this:
ME: 'Hey baby! I miss you!'
London: 'Hey momma! I miss you too! Don't come home yet because Im still playing with Caden and Lizzy."
Then the sound of the phone dropping and kid footsteps running off in the opposite direction.

Lauren kept apologizing about the short convos, but I couldn't have loved it more! London was SO happy to have days worth of play time with her cousins and she wasn't bothered a bit that I wasn't there. I am A-OK with that!

Lauren made Lu a palette in the play room so the kids could sleep in separate rooms. She didn't think about the fact that Lu's 'bed' was set up right next to Lizzy's play make up desk. Lauren put London to bed one night, then went up a bit later to check on her and found her just like this...

Hahaha! Isn't that hilarious?! Dead asleep! Lauren had the hardest time getting all the lipstick off of her and she was still a bit pinkerish by the time I got home! SO GREAT! 

 Hannah stepped in for a little relief on Sunday afternoon and sent me some great pictures of their night together! :)

 How darling is this? London's face makes me want to die and Hannah looks so gorgeous in her new red glasses and no make up! Oh to be that beautiful! Oh, at this point, they would also be out in the back yard, hanging in Hannah's hammock, reading bedtime books together. So much fun!

What a sweet treat to come home to all these great pictures and stories! Thank you, Lala and Hannah for being fabulous friends and family! I am so grateful for you both!

Everyday post

Just pictures that make me ridiculously happy. 

 London's teacher took this picture at school and I thought it was fantastic! I love walking into that view twice a day! Counted as a blessing for sure!

Not one thing on earth makes me happier than watching her dance. Especially when she does 'criss cross feet'.. and when she pulls her panties up to her ninnies in the middle of her freestyle routine. Completely owns me. 

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Again with the dancing. I've only watched this video 30,000 times, but who's counting. They learned the cha cha dance at school, which I for one was THRILLED about! So so funny! 

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Just a fun, lazy Friday night with my favorite person ever. Gah, the good times!

 School picture... in which she's not looking at the camera so this is all you will see of this! 

 A sick day. That morning I had her in my nook, cuddling and brushing through her hair, and she asked if we could please go ride the carousel today. We took our time getting ready, then off we went for a mid-morning carousel ride. I was speechless in love with her this day. God is so good to me. 

 From the backseat: "Mom! Look, a dolphin!" 

Do you see it?! Holy cow, its a perfect dolphin, swimming right next to a perfect goose! I can't get over how exactly these clouds formed! So awesome! 

 Peek-A-Boo

 A friend delivered a big box of hand-me-downs and this fancy little number was in it! She's getting SO BIG! Sassy little lady!

Speaking of sassy, I gave her a big hair cut yesterday so she has this adorable little bob cut now. She looks so cute I could eat her alive. Anyway, some little girl thinks she is HOT TO TROT now! She spent ALL of last night and this morning making flirty faces at herself in the mirror and swinging her hair around! Haha!! I was dying laughing all night!

 One of my bosses suggested we come to their neighborhood for their annual free wine & beer festival. Doesn't that sound FABULOUS?? I was so excited about it! This little joker was having a rather winey day, and it felt like every time I snuck off to grab a taste of wine, I'd immediately hear, 'Mom. Mom. Mom. MOm. Hey Mom. Mooooooooooooooooom. Mom. Mom. Mooooooom. Hey!! MOM!!!' 

I put this picture on Instagram and said 'the wine to whine ratio was way off. #MoreWine #LessWhine' because that was the truth, man. Whew. Rough day. She ended up looking super cute after the torture that was sitting in the line to get our face painted. :/ Cue the tears. Then the happy. #drama

Freedom Week- Birmingham Remembers

"On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls. This murderous act shocked the nation and galvanized the civil rights movement." nps.gov

Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley

Birmingham did a remarkable job remembering the events that so famously put our city on the historical map during the Civil Rights Movement. For the whole month of September, Birmingham held various events, speeches, concerts, and art installments to celebrate our '50 Years Forward'. London and I stopped by Railroad Park to see a bit of what they were doing and we had such a nice afternoon talking to people about the history of our city and how these different groups of people were bringing honor to very hard-to-swallow past.

An local elementary school made 15,000 origami birds in memory of the children who were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. They hung them from the rafters at the RR Park pavillion. London and I laid back and watched the birds sway silently for a long while. My soul was quieted as I watched and thought of these four girls. It was a very innocent, touching tribute for lives of little girls lost. 

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One big stage. One tiny performer. One happy audience member. One great show. 

My heart was turned over how lucky I am to have a daughter to hold and love and laugh with. She was looking out over the train tracks, turned around, reached out her hand, and said, 'Mommy, come and see the whole world with me.'

With a lump in my throat that I couldn't clear, my heart whispered, "yes, baby girl. Let's do that."

Thank you, gracious God, for daughters.