2011 So Far

I will post soon about what's going on with me (as a follow-up to the last post), but I wanted to quickly just take note of some of the big things that have already happened this year.

January 3rd, Grady turned 7. SEVEN!! Oh my lordt, what on earth? ;) He wanted a small little celebration...just him and two of his friends to go to the movies (they saw Megamind) and then for them to come back afterward and have cake/ice cream/presents with me and the girls, spaceships theme. He knew that he wanted the movie to just be the boys, so earlier that week he asked me out for a date. ;) Melt my heart. He wanted to do something special with me too (I pray that trend continues for...forever). ;)

He's getting so big and is so handsome...loves to learn and figure out how things are done and work. He thinks a lot and I just love that about him. He's the best big brother there ever was and I just love who he is. We no longer have 'Bible time' every night, mostly because we are back to homeschooling here and have a lot of Bible time discussions during homeschool daily. But, occasionally I still put him to bed and have a little time of just me and him, reading about who he wants to read about in the Word. He's very tall (I need to measure him) and loves to ride his bike. And, I could just go on and on...but, the main point I wanted to make? He's 7 now. ;) And we love him! I love the fun things they all say and wish that I could write them all down, but it's just not feasible to do that...I'd spend so much time each day doing that. ;) But, one thing that Grady said the other day...we were playing War and I had won one of the battles and I said the old saying "I won, I won, I shot the BB gun; you lost, you lost, you ate the applesauce." Well, the next battle he won. He said, "I got the apple pie. You've got to go hunting for your food." Ha...nice.

February 17th, Joel and I celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss. ;) When we got back to the states at the end of 2009, we hadn't even been married quite 9 years yet, but we had a feeling that we'd make it to 10. ;) Plus, I'd never been and really wanted to go, so we took a little 3 or 4-day trip (I can't even remember now) to New York City. We kind of counted that as a little pre-celebration of the big 1-0 since we knew we'd probably not be able to get away on our actual 10-year. But, on the actual day of 10 years, Joel's parents were here. So, they stayed with the kids and we went to a favorite restaurant of ours here.

Sooo hilarious...over the course of conversation we actually came to the realization that the past 10 years have been really difficult. Hahaha. Not anything to do with our relationship/marriage. But, just all the other factors...lots of moves, lots of transition, several jobs, lots of lots of stuff (stressful stuff). Going through those things at the time we didn't really think about it...challenging things, yes, but we just put one foot in front of the other and went on with our daily lives. Only when looking back and 'summing up' our last 10 years did we realize it...and we just had to laugh. And toast our coke and juice glasses to a smoother, easier next 10 years. But, I have grown SOOO much the past 10 years with this incredible man I call my husband. It's been amazing and I'm so thankful for him and for the children that he helped to create. ;)

February 20th, Hadley turned 6. First, we took advantage of a movie that was showing a couple of weeks before her birthday. We all went to see Tangled, along with a couple of other friends that Hadley invited (she pointed out that her inviting Grady along was like putting hot things on him 'heaping lumps of coal on his head;' I promise that she wasn't mad at him for not inviting everyone when he went to the movies for his birthday, but she just thought it was funny and got a kick out of the fact that she was being soooo kind to him on her birthday by inviting him along; I guess you can tell which Bible verse they had learned that week...ha). She told me she wanted the bear that eats bamboo for her birthday. Not sure why I thought of koala first. Well, maybe because I have no idea what bears eat, good grief. But, a friend of ours was over and asked, "Panda?" And panda it was. We had a small little party with her friends here at the seminary and a couple of friends from Asas. We had it at the seminary park and they had lots of fun.

She continues to be such a spunky, fun little girl. I like her a lot. ;) She's really quick to learn things...picks them up fast, figures things out easily. And she's such a great big sister to Eissa and Cass and best friend to Grady. Hadley is forever saying cute little things, but today it was raining and she remarked that earlier she had thought it was only going to 'sparkle' (sprinkle). I'm going to have to try to just have my computer handy at all times to write down more cuteness that they say. I'll be glad I did later, even though they'll probably be like 'why are you always stopping our conversations to type on your computer?' Yeah, on second thought, it might not work. We'll see how much I get recorded.

Anyway, just wanted to take note of these things. Oh, Joel is also another year older as of February 6th (beginning of the year is a pretty busy time for us)...34 years old. :) And, that's it for the 2011 updates right now. Hope you are having a great weekend.