Choo Choooooooo...

It is Spring Break week at the Womble Times so I decided to take the kids to do something fun. Courtney and Jacob agreed to tag along with us and all of the Wombles were thrilled about that. Last summer at a silent auction, I won a getaway package with lots of fun things to do. I decided now was the time to use it. We left early Tuesday morning on a mission to find the Choo Choo. The kids did great in the car and we were there in no time. J and Jacob shared their car toys so well on the way. We were impressed. Here we are waiting to board the train. The children were so excited! MG must of said "choo choo" at least 100 times. The train ride was 50 minutes round trip. We rode to the train station at the end of the line, got off and then watched the "train workers" turn the engine around. That was pretty cool. We wandered around the mini train yard grabbing a few pictures, of course. Then we hopped back on for our return ride. Jacob was not impressed with having his picture made on the train. This ones for you Court.We spent the rest of the day feeding our famished crew, checking in the hotel and walking around the city. Ms. Courtney somehow signed herself up for the job of little boy wrangler while I had stroller duty. I think I got the easier end of that deal. Thanks friend! Here they are walking over the plexiglass pedestrian bridge. I have this little fear of heights so it wasn't my favorite part of the day. There was no other way to get to the other side so I walked swiftly and didn't look down. Glad the baby girl couldn't actually see the look on my face. I'm sure it was priceless. I was very impressed with the downtown area of C-nooga. They have really put a lot of work into making it family friendly. If you haven't been in a while you should load up the kids and go for a day or two. We will definitely go back to finish up the tickets we didn't have time to use. The kids had a great time.

Woohoo!

I've decided the kids and I are taking a little road trip. This week is Spring Break and we could use a little time away from every day life. Daddy can't get away since there are several people off this week at the office (including his partner). Luckily, Courtney has agreed to be my partner in crime. JPM will be great company for the kids and she will provide a grown up accomplice for me! Have a great week. We'll be back on Thursday.

Love to all,
Mommy

Welcome baby Emsley...

All these babies making their debut. I love it! Miss Emsley Grace arrived this morning at 7:58 weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 19 inches. She's a peanut compared to both of my babies. Welcome to "The Crazy Life of the W's" as your Mommy calls it. It might be so crazy but you are going to be so loved!

Thank you Easter Bunny...

The Easter Bunny knew that J wanted to play a sport so somehow he signed him up for t-ball. He brought all things necessary to take us out to the ballgame beginning in June. J was THRILLED!
MG was brought to tears when we told her the Easter Bunny left her the basket. She must of been having flash backs from Friday. :-) He left her the cutest little pink bathing suit and cover up for summer along with the pillow Mommy has been stalking at Target. How did he know Mommy wanted that for her room? He must of read my mind. ;-)
Our Easter egg hunt in the cold. MG was the only participant.
J was not interested. He was working on "the catching and throwing" with Daddy.

MG bailed on the egg hunting after round 3. All she really wanted to do was this...
AKA Ma-eee sing, Ma-eee sing, Ma-eeee siiiinnnnnggggggg...

the Womble Easter Parade...

We actually went to church for Easter service on Saturday night. Our church was expecting over 3,000 people on Sunday so we decided to celebrate Easter with the Holy Land. Technically it was already morning on the other side of the world so we weren't early (you were late). :-)

For whatever reason, J decided he needed to pray during our Easter photo session. MG refused to sit still. Don't ask me why. It was probably just to drive the camera girl crazy. Why is it they never want to cooperate when you want them to?

Presenting the Womble Easter Parade 2008...

Where are all the eggs?

We attended a community Easter Egg Hunt today at the park near our house. It was supposed to begin at 11 am so we arrived a few minutes before. There were children and Easter baskets everywhere. J was so excited! As we were walking up to the large group , the whistle blew and everyone took off. The big kids ran ahead of all the small children and the eggs were gone in literally 30 seconds. GONE! I was secretly irritated that every 8-9-10 year old kid had baskets filled with eggs and the little ones were crying because they didn't have any! We made the best of it but you can clearly see the look of frustration on J's face. Oh, and no I did not button his top button like that. He said he was cold so he "buttoned up to stay warm". hehe. :-) MG could have cared less though J was devastated because he didn't find even one egg. A very nice Daddy took two eggs out of his own sons' basket and threw them on the ground behind J. I had to point him quickly in the right direction before the 10 year old beside us pounced on them. I stood between him and the eggs since he saw the Dad throw them down. :-) Then we ran into his friend Calen and he shared some eggs with both of them. It was so sweet. If you look closely you can see a little bit of the crowd. This was taken about 5 minutes after the hunt and everyone had already gone back to the pavilion except a few lingering children still trying to find an egg.After the egg hunt (or lack thereof), we stood in line to have our picture made with the bunny. MG was smiling and waving at him the entire time...until it was our turn. Then, she LOST IT! "Nooooooooo bu-ee! Nooooooo bu-ee! Noooooooooooooo...". She was clinging to me like I was waving a snake in her face. Ok, no Easter Bunny for you. This was his reaction...J wasn't too keen on the idea either but when bunny brought out the Dum-Dums he decided maybe posing for a photo wasn't such a bad idea after all. The bunny even shared a few suckers for MG even though she thought he was the devil in disguise. J played a few games and MG played in the "quack quack" pond for a bit. We ran into a couple of friends and then we headed for the hotdog line. We waited for about 15 minutes. Then, in a moment of sheer brilliance I convinced J I would take him anywhere he wanted for lunch (and let them eat a Dum-Dum beforehand) if we didn't have to stand in line for another hour to get our free hotdog. He was resistant at first but minutes later asked for the Golden Arches. I happily obliged.I think the kids had a good time despite the egg hunt thing. I promised we would do plenty of egg hunting at home and that made J feel much better. Here they are enjoying their sugar fix before lunch. Dum-Dums are such a winner at our house. Thank you Easter Bunny!

Hope

I am still on hiatus; however, I could not let this weekend pass without sharing an excerpt of an email I received today from Bro. Brady, our Pastor. How timely a message for me after the past few weeks.

As your pastor, I want to encourage you to spend some time this Holy Week in private devotion, focusing on the magnitude of the sacrifice Christ made for you on the Cross. I believe your private devotional time will, in many ways, enhance our corporate times of worship on Easter. Often we come into worship services without a sense of expectation; such was the case of the women who came to the tomb on that first Easter morning. They were expecting death, but the surprise of the ages awaited them. The stone was rolled away, and Christ had risen—Hope had truly come.

We live in a world surrounded by emptiness; many are experiencing emotional emptiness, relational emptiness, or professional emptiness. The cure for emptiness is the Hope of Easter. I am writing this email in a small, twin-prop plane, high above the mountains of Panama. I “hope” I make it down. I “hope” my luggage arrives too (wishful thinking I know). I “hope”, but I can’t be sure. There are very few certainties in life.

One of the things I love most about Easter is that Hope is changed from wishful thinking to an absolute certainty. The resurrection of Jesus changed everything. Christ is alive; death is defeated; the barriers in our lives that keep us penned in can be rolled away...

Yesterday, one of my closest and dearest friends said something that I hope I will always remember. We don't praise God because He WILL answer our prayers, but we praise Him because we know that He CAN. I think it is easy to be hopeful when things are good. I think it is much more difficult to remember we have hope when we find ourselves surrounded by a sea of uncertainty. Life happens. If it hasn't happened to you, it will (whether you like it or not). I wish I could say that I am overflowing with joy and hopefulness at this moment but in reality that would be a lie. What I can say is I am reminded we have hope in all circumstances, both the good and the bad, because of the sacrifice one man made for each and every one of us.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:3

Hiatus...

I am on hiatus until further notice. I'll get caught up eventually. It has been a tough couple of weeks. I need to find MY happy place. I know I'm not going to find it here. Catchyalater girls.

We have embraced this verse as J's "story" for most of his life. It is even printed above the windows in his bedroom as a description of who he is to us. It is a reminder that God's plan and our plan are not always one in the same. Ultimately, His plan is always better (even though it doesn't necessarily feel like it at the moment)."For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." --Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

the hands and the feet and the mouth, Oh My!

I've been wondering what has possessed my child over the past few days. A few days of fever and an incredibly whiney child with no explanantion. Welcome little red rash and the world of hand/foot/mouth disease. Nice.

Introducing baby Julia...

Rebekah, Darren and Big Sister Elizabeth, much to their surprise, welcomed baby sister today. Miss Julia was born at 6:09 pm. She weighted 8 lbs 2 oz and measured 19.75" long. Her Daddy said "she is a picture of health" and she certainly looks it in her photo debut. J is ready to show Elizabeth the ropes of being a sibling (whenever the shock wears off). Welcome sweet baby Julia. We can't wait to meet you!

SNOW DAY...finally!

We woke to our first and only decent snow of the year this morning. J was soooooo excited I could barely get him to eat his breakfast. It was such a powdery wet snow we couldn't get a snowman to hold together. Bummer. MG was none too thrilled and pretty much whined and cried the entire time we were outside. She was not impressed. J would have stayed outside until it melted away if we would have let him. My camera battery died not long after we got out so I only got a few pictures. Happy Snow Day everyone. I'm sure it is the one and only accumulating snow we are actually going to get this winter so I hope you all enjoyed it.

You rest Mommy, I already made lunch...

Note to self: be sure to close the childproof latch every single time you open the junk food cabinet.

Fit for the princess...

Before:
the blue puppy Britax carseat cover I just HAD to have for J 5 years ago. It has seen better days.During:
a very distressed MG thinking Mommy is doing something terrible to her "go byebye"After:
the cutest custom made girly-girl Britax carseat cover ever created. Frogs, puppies, bunnies, kitties and turtles wearing smocked dresses with coordinating ruffle fabric to give just an extra hint of girliness. It even included the buckle and strap covers. What could be cuter than THAT?
(FYI: I provided my own fabric and she custom made it just for the Roundabout. The covers are not shown in the photo above but I have them. I found the lady on eBay. If anyone needs a new cover let me know. I have her email address.)

a ladies man...ALREADY?

This was our conversation coming home from church yesterday. We were discussing the fact that J's preschool classmate moved down the street on Saturday...

J: You mean C.H. lives in my neighborhood now?
M: Yep, she sure does
J: Awwwww, well maybe someday she can come over and then I'll marry her
[Ummm...what did he say as Daddy and I stare at each other?]
M: What?
J: Maybe someday I can go to her house and then we'll get married

Today after I picked him up from preschool...
J: Mommy, today N. gave me a kiss
M: She DID?
J: Yep, she sure did! [flashing huge smile]
M: Why?
J: Because she's so sweet and I LOVE HER