sunday love'n

snow queen: max and ruby be proud.

davey family polar bear cave 

and one soggy little stuffed polar bear 

and one very happy polar-charlee-momma

bones in action.

my fave.

jalapenos

i usually make it down to bellingham about once a month. 

unfortunately, the trip is about filling the pantry and stocking the freezer,

even though bellingham is where some of my favorite people and adventures are. 

...

the stars must have been on my side because i was able to convince

 gary to accompany me yesterday. 

we mixed business with pleasure and

aside from picking up our favorite grocery items,

we got to spend some time with my baby brother and his fiance. 

here are some of gary's pics:

(just love 'em, sug.)

"uh-huh"

she can have my pizza heart too.

she might as well.

for fun

happy friday y'all

here's to making the most out of what we have -

and love'n it.

here's to it being too cold to do yard work.

and to the promise of spring 

and farmers tans.

here's to laughing. at it all.

here's to swimming lessons and cheeseburgers.

here's to dad-erday.
and sleep-ins.
and coffee's.

here's to sharing and yurts and pulled pork sandwiches.

and church on sunday.

...

bottoms up.

these two...

these photos are a couple of my favorites taken at preschool this morning.
you know 
whatever they were laughing about was probably

"stinky poopy."
am i right, ash?
...
more on preschool later, ok.
cause.
i'm.

so.
*blink*
tired.
now.

an idea

for when you don't have coats warm enough to play outside.

crayola is washable, you know.

gary thinks i'm crazy.

i just smile when he tells me because 

i already know.
...
i do good with crazy.
it's my specialty.

why is it so cold now...

this was me.

on sunday.

on a longboard.

and i hearted it.

my bones

 i feel like i've been talking about char a lot lately...

here are a few things i'm loving about my bodhi boy these days.

...

- he still loves his trains.

- he's figured out how to ride jane-z's the tricycle.

hopefully by summer he'll feel confident enough to try his own bike.

he is also something of a daredevil on a skateboard.

(maybe like his uncle rob!)

- the potty mouth has been a little out of control lately but apparently that's normal with boys.

is it?

also, i recently threw away a disney's "little mermaid" book because he said he liked her "boobies."

still normal?

- he has a super soft spirit and is easily saddened.

he can not handle if one of the girls is hurt or if i raise my voice.

i love that about him.  

- he is very interested in learning. 

he loves working on his letters and numbers and shapes.

- last night i watched him meticulously make his bed before climbing in to it ever so carefully.

i need to find a way to encourage him to do that after he gets up.

- he is starting to understand that if he is "brave" he will get to have more fun and not always have to watch from the sidelines.

he is actually going to his swimming lesson without daddy and he even went to sunday school (once).

i love watching his face when i tell him how proud of him i am...

- he winks at me.

- he still loves chippies and yogurt.

- he is the kindest.  he would never think to hit or be violent.

the thought would probably make him tear up.

he will sometimes shove jane-z but it's usually in self-defence.

- this evening while giving medical attention to two very sick puppies, dr. bo held each puppy securely in his arms, he rocked them gently and kissed their heads.

it was part of their wellness plan.

that, my friends, is bedside manner! 

-oh, and his favorite person in the world might be 

his sister, char.

true story

this morning i went downstairs to turn a load of laundry.

i passed char on the stairs.

we said "hi."

about 7 minutes later i came back upstairs.

  unfamiliar music was coming from the kitchen.

well, wouldn't you know,

char had found i tunes on the computer 

(so crazy! i can barely find itunes on the computer) 

unfortunately she clicked on 

katy perry. 

and as if the nightmare couldn't get any worse

she was previewing "i kissed a girl."

i might have thrown up a little in my mouth.

i quickly turned it off and explained to the best of my ability why were 

not going to listen to that "princess" music.  

i took her to taylor swift's album 

and told her she could listen 

to this instead.

if you feel like crying a little, let it play while you look at these:

also worth noting:

char started using the phrase 

"freaking me out"

as in 

"mom!!! bo's tooters are freaking me out."

this one is for you, dad.

the story goes like this:

 once upon a time,
 a lovely lonely egg
bumped into 

  handsome piece of crispy bacon.
...
they became friends instantly.
...
one day,

 the bacon said to the egg,
with a wink wink, 
"we can be friends in more ways than one."
...
and they lived happily ever after.

thanks dad for the "pictured above."
hopefully, now, my fried eggs will be as delicious as yours.

my momma...

mumford's the word.

i am doing everything in my power to have a 

a dream like this tonight.

minus the crying baby.

who am i kidding -

probably with the crying baby.

homeschoolers night out

that's right.

there were homeschoolers everywhere 

wednesday evening at the cactus club in coquitlam.

...

i'm one... or should i say "was one."

ashley is married to one.

natalie has a few living in her kid's bedrooms.

our waitress was definitely a homeschooler!  

and 

julie, despite all the mockery,

i can tell you are totally a homeschooler in your heart. 

peace.
...

again.

soon.

ok.

my charlee girl.

i've been told...
but know i'm a believer -
4 is the best age in the whole world.

case in point:

this morning, char woke up sobbing-scared.

i heard her daddy go into her room and ask her what was wrong.

she said she had a really bad dream.  

gary scooped her up and tucked her in next to me.

she looked at me with large unblinking eyes.  

and then this gem unfolded:

me: tell me about it.

char: someone brought a worm in our house.

me: what kind of worm?

char: a green worm and it was walking around the house

and then someone put it in a worm machine and 

it came out really really stinky.

(she was almost tearing up again)

me: that's terrible (but what i was thinking was - i already love this day)

char: yeah... and then it was walking around the kitchen and there was ice cream but i didn't have any.  

and i was so scared.  

me: how big was the worm.
char: this big
(she held up her pointer and her thumb with exactly 2 inches between them)

me: absolutely terrifying!
char: i know.

a little later we had this back-and-forth:

me: grandma jodi's coming this weekend.

char: grandma jodi?

me: yep!

char: are you going to have another baby?

me: what? no! why would ask that?

char: (shrug and smile)

a remembering place...

i'm not sure why...

but i took my kids to see "matt's spot."

i miss him and the kids have been asking about him.

so we went - kind of spontaneously. 

i told the kids that matt wasn't there... because he is with jesus now. 

but "his box" was buried and we could go there

to remember him...

and bring him presents if we'd like.

for some reason that made sense to their little heads and 

they really liked the idea of bringing him a present.  

(maybe we'll paint rocks.)

for me,

it felt right to feel the weight of the sadness for a few minutes

and to remember my little crew the way it was.

hearts 'n stuff

i feel about valentines day about the same thing i feel about headbands.  it's cute 'n all but let's face it, it's a little "kindergarten."

i think i have better feelings about mardi gras.  

i am of the thinking that looking for ways to show love should be a way of life...
not a day of the year.
*more on this later
 mardi gras, on the other hand, needs it's own day lest we all get carried away.
you can have too many king cakes people!
gary is good at valentines.
he got right in the spirit sunday night and made cards for everyone in the house.

he set them out with treats for the kids to find first thing this morning.
the kids thought he was a hero...
so, with reluctance, i put on my game day fry-pan and came up with this:

i'm not 100% sure but i'm willing to say g's five mm's in a zip lock is what won their valentine hearts.
when gary got home he asked bo if he liked the valentines card
he made for him.
bo replied, "i eat treats."
oh, don't let me forget to show you the card gary made for me.

*showing love as a way of life:

lately gary and i have been challenged to jump at opportunities to love and be generous with what we have.  the church we have been attending is hammering it home!  
since our days of caring for matthew came to an end (six months ago today)
we have definitely been feeling a void.
and although there is a huge part of that void that is sure to remain (the matthew part)
we know we have more to give... more to share... more to love.
i have been taking a course offered by the ministry of children and family
for parents who foster or provide relief for foster parents.
the class has been phenomenal. don't get me started! really!
and although, i think we are still a ways off from becoming foster parents ourselves (the timing just isn't right) we had our first opportunity to provide relief this last weekend.
we gave some incredible foster parents the weekend off by taking their sweet little foster girls.
their ages are 3 and 14 months (yeah, that made 5 kids, 4 and under).
loving them came easy.  and i think they loved it here as well.
it was a really great weekend.  things went really smooth and that's the truth.
we were a great team and again, we were blessed to have kathleen as part of our family.
she was around to snuggle and hold and read books to the little people in our home.
not going to lie, the nights did get a little intense and
we were exhausted at the end... but in a really good renewing kind of way.
and there was that little voice in our spirits that said,
"this is it."

her little face made me see hearts.  

tuesday.

today a little miracle happened.  

even my bulbs peeked to see.

the clouds cleared and the sun was bright.

a sight i thought would never be.

...

i feel like for the last couple for the last couple of months the weather was suffering with clinical depression.  it has been so grey and wet!  we have hardly been outside.

upon seeing the sun this morning we promptly went out to greet it - 

and invite it to stay awhile.

(for the sake of all our mental health). 

this might be my favorite outfit in the whole world.  

it's how you dress when you don't leave the house.

-honorable mentions go out to char and bo.

char insisted she wear all pink and bo wear all orange.

they could start a rock band and call it the clash.

...

have i mentioned we've been a little sick around here?  

that's right.

i have a three year old with a full fledged case of the 

man-flu.

symptoms include:

cough

mild fever

whining

crying 

extreme sensitivity to sunlight and 

moderate sensitivity to jane-z.

moaning.

whining... 

oh i said that already.

 

on a happier note,

char got to play in her fort for about 7 1/2 minutes.

i'm looking forward to spring - that's for darn sure.

red, pink, green

our weekend was super busy and wonderful.  we attended two #3 birthday parties (because our friends ruthie and vida blue were born on the same day!)  one party was a princess tea party and the other was a family style pool party.  both were so fun!  needless to say our kids are pooped.  the energy level is at about a 4.5 over here and it appears we are going for round three of gross snot and coughs.    

awesome possum!

to bed with the davey children!
and skippy.