Wednesday, February 11, 2015

February Life

I wrote a very long, wordy post last night, amid beautiful pictures of a trip to the zoo, but I wrote like I had a fire lit under me and decided to save it until morning so I could CALM THYSELF. Turns out I felt very impassioned about encouraging mothers while burning the midnight oil. We're gonna dial all the emotions down a little and try again on that one soon!

Instead, how about a pictures heavy post of the fun times we've had over the past two weeks or so!

Cousin's spend the night party and trip to the dollar movie to see 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day', which was really cute! I had forgotten how much I love going to the movies! So fun! (However, Lu's attention span isn't quite long enough for the movies which honestly annoys the snot out of me. She's THE BEST but aren't we old enough to sit through a movie by now?! Sit and hush, child!)
Pretending to play at the arcade because ain't no body dropping hard earned quarters in an arcade game, right?? They didn't seem to mind the looping preview screens at all! 

Also, my favorite declaration as of late is that Caden wants to be an American Ninja Warrior when he grows up. I fully support him in this decision and will forever be on Team Caden Ninja Warrior. He delights me.  
Our tradition of post movie dance party continues! Good times! 
I've covered this on the blog before, but for the past few years, when winter seems relentless, I get the blues. I'm not sure if it's the cold or the lack of fresh air and sunshine, but this shadow moves in and wreaks havoc on my usual chipper demeanor. I've purposefully been taking pictures of things that make me happy so I can keep record of how good things are. It keeps me from throwing pity parties about how the winter won't. let. up. 

We don't have a garage anymore, so the car is covered in ice most mornings when I come out for work. Every day we sit in the car and marvel over how beautiful it is. The sun is rising and it paints the coolest pictures through either the ice or, lately, enormous snowflakes that have frozen to the glass during the night. We sit amazed, looking at how every single snow flake is entirely different from the others. Aren't snowflakes one of the most remarkable things on earth? God..... YOU CREATIVE GENIUS.  

Again- taking inventory of things that make me happy... this laugh. Holy cow. "Spin me, momma!" 
{Video- you'll need to come visit the blog to see it!}

This sweet child. I try to speak lots of loving words over Lu Lu so that she will turn around and speak loving words to the people she's around every day. I was putting her to bed a few nights ago and she curled up into me and said, "I love all the words you said to me today."  And I just about died. Lordy, I love her.

Also, whenever she sees the north star in the sky she says, "I just saw the star of wonder star of light star of royal beauty bright!" I have no idea how one star got such a long name in her head but she BELIEVES that is the north star's name. She says it so factually and it slays me every time! 

Related: They sang 'We Three Kings of Orient Are' in her school Christmas play and these are the lyrics according to London: 
Star of wonder, star of night
Star of royal beauty bright
Questward leading still croceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light."

Man. I have so many more London-isms but I'll wait and post them as follow ups! Kids are so funny! 

The wicked cold finally let up one day so we went straight to the park after school. I was chatting with Jill and Lu borrowed my phone to go take pictures. She took these of her BFF's and I thought they were great! Look at bottom left. Just a great shot. Little lady has an eye for this photography stuff!
Playing around with my new camera one night. London's room looks like a carnival of lights at night between her night light, glow bracelets, and pillow that shoots color lights on the ceiling. I've got to admit, I love laying in there with her and watching all the lights change color. It's very tranquil!

Another one of my new favorite things: Jill and I have both been swamped at work so at the end of each day were dying to see each other and just GAB. It's been too cold to stay outside for long so she's started putting the kids in the back of the van and driving really slow donuts around the school parking lot. It gives us time to talk and the kids are in the way back sloshing all around and howling laughing! It's hilarious! 

After one of these donut days, London asked if she could drive. So, here was our post work driver's ed course. We might need to keep practicing! 
{Video}

Last week we met the Thomas' for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. London looked up from dinner and said "Look! The ice skating golf race is on!"
I still can't stop laughing about it. So funny. 

Look who's losing all of her teeth!! Doesn't she look adorable as a snaggle tooth?! I love it so much!
The Thomas' invited us over for game night and we played 'headbands'. It was so adorable! On the way home London said, 'That was a fun family night, momma.' :) You've got that right, little lady!




Science is fun! Lu Lu with a major case of static electricity! 



Knox is running in his first track meet soon so we met up with the fam for track fun with Coach Kurt! 
(Pouting but beautiful still.)

Bonk.


JUMP!



LEAP!


His shirt says 'too much awesome' and I couldn't agree more!

Someone has been working REALLY hard to meet a goal I had set for her. She made it so we ventured to the fancy part of town and went to a candy shop.  London had saved up reward money for a few weeks and when we went to pay, she pushed all her pennies across the counter and said, 'here is ALL my money.' She was so proud of herself and it was a delightful time treating this pearl of a girl!

We even bought candy that reminded us of Andaddy because he can fix bones. This one LOVES her grandaddy. 

And why not finish off the weekend with a little tennis? This session involved lots of leaping, so we didn't make a lot of contact, but she sure did look adorable! :)


Retirement Looks Good on Him!

My awesome Dad turned 66 years old a few weeks ago. Let me come back to the word awesome. My Dad, who for most all of his life has been working as hard as he could, retired in December. The man who has emerged is AWESOME. 

If you're reading and know my Dad personally, but haven't yet met 'Retired Chuckles', then you need to wipe everything you know of him and start fresh. I'm not sure if you can see what is going on in the scenes below, so I'll spell it out for you.
1. Mom brought Dad to Bham for a day trip. (whaaaaa??? Trips to Birmingham USED to only happen at Christmas and the kids birthdays.)
2. This was a total surprise and he was up for not having any idea where he was going. (Ummm. Excuse me?)
3. He had a fantastic time and just jumped in the car with whoever was toting him around town. How 'fly by the seat of his pants' of him! (Who is this fun guy? (There's an awesome fungi joke in there somewhere.))
4. He's also taken to sitting at the end of the table with the kids during mealtime now. The adults sit at one end, Andaddy and his little people sit at the other. Best granddad ever. 


Dad has been wanting to eat at the Bright Star restaurant in Bessemer, AL for a while now. We've never had time to make it work but Mom thought it would be fun to bring him over for a treat. 


The Bright Star opened in 1907 and is still going! It's been named as an official Alabama landmark. We had a great time roaming around reading articles and looking at all the celebrity pictures that are hanging on the walls! 



Andaddy and his people!
I jumped in a picture! Hooray!
Our clan of family that makes my heart so happy. I look at pictures like this and it reminds me that I lack not. one. thing. Everything that could possibly make me happy is captured in one frame. I love you Dad. The 'new you' is one of my favorite things that's ever happened! Here's to many, many more birthday celebrations with Mom, Dad, and this gang.  The days ahead are going to be the best years of all of our lives. We have our dad back. Oh, the memories we're about to make! I'm so thrilled about it, I could pop! 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

What's the drop dead date for New Year's Resolutions?

Well, my New Year's resolution was to blog more. I have lots of excuses (i.e. no internet until this week!) but really, I just pass out as soon as I hit the sheets! (#1) This ties into thought #2. 

#2. To add insult to injury, I'm on sabbatical from Instagram. So, I promise to blog and I don't. Then I pull off Instagram entirely. You probably think I'm a miserable, no-fun person. I get it. I do. 

Silver lining (for me) is that I am in such a happy place! We are in our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting with our church. It's my very favorite church event. Every morning at 6 am they have corporate prayer services at every campus (and online for those of us who can't make it in person). You have to get up and going bright and early to make it (see exhaustion issue in item 1) but there is nothing like spending these early mornings with God. The church stats coming back to us are truly unbelievable. My best friend has been going in person and had to sit in the floor on the second day because there wasn't an available seat..... at 6 am.... in an auditorium that seats over 800 people. And we're just one of many campuses in our city. It's a wild and marvelous thing to watch. I'm so thankful to be a part of whatever God has planned for this church! 

Anyway.... I'm taking a break from Instagram during this time. Which is not hard at all so it's not much of a fast. It's more about being present with Londie Lu Lu. All of the house selling/moving/crazy work business has not been low on stress.  London has been an amazing sport during all of this. I've drug her poor self all over kingdom come and spent hours on the phone working out all of the details. She has gotten way too many 'just a minute' fingers and 'I can't right now' answers. So, I needed to put the phone down and move into our new home with full excitement for our family! 

So, here is a quick look at our past week! Our children's pastor was praying a ridiculously powerful prayer over the children we are raising. An early riser padded into the bathroom and I told her we were praying over her life. She stood right up next to me and bowed her head to pray with us. Between the encouraging words and a prayerful little girl, I was a puddle. 

The only input London had over our new house was that she wanted sidewalks. We have a sidewalk that leads straight to a park.... and if you hang a left at the intersection, we're a mere 2 biking minutes  from Knox and Lucas' house! It is amazing. We love love love living so close to our people! Also, it's been great practice for learning to ride the new bike Santa brought her!
(Video- click on the link to the actual blog to see the videos!)
It can't hurt that 2 minutes in the other direction is Krispy Kreme right? 

We had two gymnastics birthday parties this Saturday! She was WORN by the end of the day! (Thank you friends!) She is also interested in gymnastics lessons now so maybe you'll be seeing more of these! I wish I had the new camera that Dad gave me for Christmas because it's specifically an action shot camera! This would've been the perfect time to practice! Still, iPhone pics get the job done!


The foam pit was a major highlight!

They had a zip line also. The teacher asked the kids in front of her if they wanted to go slow, kind of fast, or super fast. They all said slow. London? Super fast. Prayers appreciated over my momma heart!
(Video)
Trampoline fun! That monster sound in the middle? That's me! Gross! ;) Hearing your own voice is the worst! Then slow mo'ing your annoying voice... double horrible!
(Video)

Monday at the park with our BFF's. They are admiring the baby bird egg that they found on the ground (read: small rock). 


Trying to recreate my favorite picture of London on the yellow bench. These kids are the cutest!


Sunday, January 4, 2015

The Rhea's new year in Columbus!

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry for the downright disappearance of the blog. One of my New Year's resolutions was to blog twice as much as I did this year! As long as you're okay with phone posts, which may not be as well thought out or edited for aesthetics, I think I can do it! Life has been outright insane. Perspective, I'm writing this at 3 am because I woke up two hours ago and can't put my brain back to sleep. Grrr. 

Nothing is wrong, so not to worry! It's all good stuff! My house sold!!!!!!!!!
GLORYHALLELUJAHPRAISETHELORD!!! The house has been for sale for a year and a half. Holy cow. That's a lot of making the beds everyday! :) I will write a full post about this soon because it's been the way God has drawn near to me over this past year. It's an important story to tell- even if it's just to remind myself (and my expectations) that God is often found in waiting. He taught me to be patient... A discipline that I've never had much success with, and He taught me in the most gentle way possible. His way is perfect and I stand firm on that foundation. 

The house: Everything was moving along peachy, we were going to rent an apartment for a few months then move into Barry's rental house this summer..... About 4 days ago, Barry's current renters told him they were planning to stay for another year and a half! Our original plan was to move into a cheap, tiny (miniscule) apartment so we scratched that because that would never work for the next few years! So, we have spent this week frantically looking for new options. I am hopeful I found our new place yesterday because we move out this Friday.  I'm 'sleeping on it' (clearly) to find peace about my decision. All of this has been in the middle of our year end at a financial firm, which makes the timing a bit inconvenient! Work has been so busy (read: praise the Lord for success and amazing, understanding bosses), that I've felt like I've been totally steamrolled flat by the end of every afternoon! I have absolutely no brain capacity left! 

So-- life has been a blessing filled doosy this month! But, here's to blogging more! (I can't post this without the biggest of shout outs to my amazingly parents (who are blessings heaped on top of blessings), my extraordinarily kind brother and sister, and my extravagantly loving best friends, Jill and Kurt. My clan of family is second to none. I could never, ever make it through life without you.) 

A few quick pictures of the Rhea's! They were in Columbus this week and mom and dad have been sending over snapshots of their lazy days! I'll say it... I'm completely jealous of these pictures! It's rained incessantly here and everyone is OVER IT. I'd love to be waiting out this weather, curled up with a book, in the comfort of mom and dad's house! LUCKIES!! (But they sure are cute as punkin pie!)

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Hard at Work

The elves have been hard at work this year but they still have a skip in their step!

Merry Christmas from the Rhea Lane Families! We love you all!

(click the image below to play)