The Red Webs

Happy New Year

2012-01-19T09:44:00.000-06:00

For those of you who don't know me and only know our family through this blog might be wondering if we ever made it back from our trip. Did we survive? Were we sucked away by a twister therefore preventing us from returning to Oz? Did a week in a car with a 2 year old and a 3 year old render me so mentally incapacitated that I am therefore unable to ever blog again?

Kind of. Not really. I'm just slow.

We survived a 16 hour drive to Alabama, a 14 hour drive to West Virginia, and then a 12 hour drive back to Kansas. All in 9 days. Three hotels, two different homes, and lots and lots of advil.

Actually, the kids did amazingly well. We really love family road trips. Good thing, right? We've gotten into our groove and have our road trip songs, games, restaurants, and books. Just give the Websters a map and a Cracker Barrel and we are good to go. It doesn't take much, folks.

We left Christmas Eve evening and drove until midnight to St. Louis. Fortunately there was room for us at the inn. The Drury Inn. Ha! But it really was peaceful driving on Christmas Eve listening to music and just thinking about the meaning of that night.

We spent Christmas morning at the continental breakfast at the Drury Inn. We had to put our children in time out twice and Will got in big trouble with Daddy for crawling under the table. Happy Birthday, Jesus!!

We had lunch at a Waffle House somewhere in Tennessee. Of course? Isn't that how everyone has their lunch on Christmas?

And of course we slept. Not even the excitement of it being Christmas Day could overcome the fact that we hadn't gone to sleep in our hotel room until 1 am.

We finally made it to Birmingham around dinner time. Hooray! We were so happy to see our family!

We didn't get to Alabama until that evening so we had a wonderful Christmas dinner with my family and then it was on to presents! My oldest niece read the Christmas story from the Bible and then my youngest niece read Twas the Night Before Christmas from a book she has made herself in Kindergarten. Bennett recited the Christmas story and Will sang Jingle Bells. Everyone was happy. Here is a picture of Will singing. I like how the stack of presents is higher than he is.Oh, and he had to stand on the fireplace to sing. Of course. because he's my kid.

Precious memories.

Bennett's favorite present was her Rapunzel dress from her grandparents and then the matching wig and shoes from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jason. Will's was a $4 train that moved in a ball from Walgreens. Go figure. Here they are checking out their favorite toys. I just love this picture.

So we had a wonderful Christmas Day but that night was kind of rough. Will kept us up all night coughing. He had gotten sick before we left Kansas but the doctors had said it was just a viral infection. By Christmas evening we knew it was much worse. So we spent FOUR hours on the 26th at an urgent care facility.

Good thing we went though. The little guy had a double ear infection and pneumonia. Great. Merry Christmas indeed.

While Rob and I were at the doctors office, my sister took her girls and Bennett to go riding through a neighborhood on a one horse open sleigh. Really. I mean how awesome is that? Can you say happiest little girl in the world?

I mean that literally. Happiest.

I am even going to post this shot even though it is so far away because you can see Bennett screaming in delight.

Some more shots from that amazing afternoon. And luckily we made it there in time to ride a few times ourselves. Even sick little Will woke up from his nap in his carseat to see the horses and hop on the final ride.

We spent four days in Alabama. I had the amazing honor of visiting my cousin Elliot while she was receiving her treatment at UAB. I hope that every single person that reads my blog takes the time to visit her caring bridge site and to take the time to pray for her complete healing.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/elliotwilliams

Spending time with Elliot was as wonderful as it always is. I wish you all could meet her. She is the kindest, bravest, most loving, and gentlest person that I know. She is exactly like our Grandmother and I get to be the lucky one God chose to be her cousin. It is a privilege and a blessing. I also got to have breakfast with her sister, my other cousin Erin. Who also happens to be one of my dearest friends. Who also happens to be pretty amazing herself. Who also happens to be 9 months pregnant in this picture.

She had her beautiful baby girl one week exactly after we had breakfast together. Can I just mention one more time how hard it is to be away from my family?

We loved enjoying the beautiful weather and wanted to take advantage before returning to the cold Kansas winter, so we took the kids to the Montgomery zoo. Which is where Rob and I kind of sort of met. We filmed a funny video for our church and the video was shot at the zoo. It was our first time ever really talking or hanging out. It's also where we had our wedding reception. 'Cause that how Websters roll.

Recreating our first dance.

Riding the train where we filmed the video and also where our entire wedding party rode in on for the reception.

We had a great time in Alabama and were able to grab dinner with friends, hang out with our family, and just enjoy being home for Christmas. Here are some beautiful shots of Bennett and Will with their cousins on my side of the family.

We then left Alabama for the next leg of our journey. We headed up North to good 'ole Parkersburg, West Virginia to spend a few days with Rob's side of the family. This was actually such a wonderful treat. We hadn't been with Rob's family for Christmas in years and so we were so happy to see all of them.

The main reason for our trip was to be there to support Rob's Dad, Jim Webster. He was receiving an award for all of his years of service at St. Paul's United Methodist Church. The pastor of the church had contacted Rob and his siblings a few months back to see if it would be possible for us all to be there for the presentation. Of course we all made it happen. It was such a joy to be there and celebrate Jim Webster and all he has meant to the church over the years. What a wonderful man.

Bennett and Will were so happy to see their cousins on the other side of the family. Okay, so maybe Will wasn't so happy in this particular picture, but he was at some point during the day.

We spent New Years Eve swimming, shopping, catching up, and just hanging out as a family.

Bennett chilling with her awesome cousin, Sophie. We sure do love this kid!!

Uncle Rob teaching Madeline how to play the guitar. Believe it or not, there's an app for that.

Brothers. In case you couldn't tell. Actually Will is sitting with me in my chair as I type this blog post and his comment on looking at this picture is, "Mommy!! They match!!"

We spent New Years evening at a great Italian restaurant where the kids had the best table in the house.

This may be the worst picture of Bennett ever taken, but I love it because it is of her with her cousin Jameson. They are only 3 1/2 months apart in age and I so wish we lived closer to each other so they could grow up together. Such a cute little guy.

Hugs and kisses for Aunt Laura.

We took some great family photos but they are being held hostage until Rob can finish them. I'll post those... oh.... in 2014.

And then we finally made it home. Another 12 hour drive, another hotel, and yes, another Cracker Barrel. But it was worth every second to see all of our family.

I will close with a video montage of the horse rides we took while in Birmingham. It begins with Will yelling for his Uncle Jason to look at the horse. It may just be the cutest thing I have ever seen. Ever. Happy New Year, y'all!

Sights and sounds of Christmas

2011-12-24T10:44:00.001-06:00

What a wonderful December. I am curled up in my chair right now watching my children play with their toys. My husband is making reindeer shaped pancakes and I am still basking in the warmth of our church's beautiful candlelight service last night. We will be traveling to see family members in just a few hours, but I wanted to post some pictures of our month. I can honestly say that it is has been such a blessed one and my heart is so full with gratitude for all of our blessings.

We spent a lot of time this month baking. In addition to the cookies in my previous post we made reindeer cupcakes, candy cane cookies, and haystacks. And we spent all day yesterday making peanut butter balls, dill pretzels, and bread for our neighbors and postman. I love it!

Bennett had her Christmas program at school. I will post video of that later, but here are a few shots of her singing and then with her sweet friends. I'm not going to lie. I cried. I even cried when I saw her name in the program. She's got a rough road ahead of her with her weepy Mom.

And the homeroom Moms in Bennett's class kind of rock. They organized a cookie making party on one day when the kids were out of school for Christmas.

Here are my kids with their best friends after the Advent service at our church. Bennett and Will with Levi, Crosby, Ridley, and Walker.

We went to see Santa, of course. The kids were great this year and both were so happy to see him.

We spent an evening in the town of Parkville, Missouri. I can't believe that we didn't take our camera, because this is the greatest little town and it looked gorgeous at Christmas. Sigh.... I'll learn next year. Here are some shots from Union Station and the Crown Center. We spent an entire day there a few weeks ago and will definitely do it again next year. Kansas City is so wonderful at Christmas time.

We loved going out to look at lights and we had fun stopping off at Panera Bread for gingerbread men and hot chocolate. That was something new we started this year which I think will become an annual tradition. Our favorite lights this year were at Longview Lake (of course) Candy Card Lane, and the Plaza lights are a must. We hit them all and loved every second.

We also spent a lot of time at home spending time together as a family. Here are Rob and the kids watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. We try to have computer/iphone free evenings where we really watch things with the kids. They love our undivided attention.

Here are a few more shots of life around our house during the Christmas season. The first shot is of Will having his very first taste of hot chocolate.

On Christmas Eve eve we went to the candlelight service at our church. Bennett wanted to come in to "big church" to sing the carols with us. What a sweet little girl.

We looked at more lights afterwards and then it was time to come home and get ready for Santa Claus. We set out the reindeer food. Each had their own bag. I was hoping the reindeer were literate. As it turned out, they were!

Rob read the Christmas story with the kids. We started out reading out of Daddy's Bible, but they both insisted on getting their own. This was the sweetest part of the evening and one I will always cherish.

The kids set out the milk and cookies and then were jumping up and down in excitement.

This morning Bennett ran into our room. I asked her if she knew what happened last night and she started to tear up and she sniffed, "Did Santa not bring me any presents?" So sweet. We informed her that he did and then we went to get up her sleepy brother. The came down the stairs and immediately Bennett ran to the horses and Will flew to the trains. It was a wonderful morning.

Despite all of the lights, cookies, and presents the best part of our Christmas has been teaching the children the real meaning of Christmas. We have had lots of outings, but my favorite was the night we delivered angel tree presents to the homes of children who have fathers in prison. More than buying gifts, I loved watching my kids drop coins in the Salvation Army buckets on their way into the stores. I loved hearing Bennett ask to hear Christmas carols on the radio instead of Frosty. I loved it this morning when we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

I pray each of you has a wonderful Christmas with your family. And I hope each of you know about the best Christmas gift we will ever receive.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

That is the ultimate gift. Delivered by the king of king who come to the earth in the most humble form imaginable. In the form of a helpless infant. Born to people of no importance. In a place where barn animals sleep. Born to save us from our sins. To give us the gifts of grace, peace, hope, and life. It is almost unthinkable in its scope and value. But I am grateful. So so grateful.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Christmas Cookies 2011

2011-12-22T14:19:00.001-06:00

Why add the year to the title of this post? Because it has become a fabulous annual tradition, that's why. And when my kids are in their 30's are they ~~are being forced~~ begging to read posts about their childhood, I want to have the years straight.

Here's last years post in case any of you are really bored or just have a lot of time on your hands.
http://www.theredwebs.blogspot.com/2010/12/obligatory-christmas-traditions.html

So on to cookiepalooza 2011. First we rolled out the dough. It was homemade, but store bought is just as good. I'm just a nerd who is weird about always baking from scratch. I know I'll get over it one of these days.

Then we just grabbed everything we could out of our pantry.

The kids were so excited to pick out their favorite cookie cutters and go to town.

We mixed egg yolks with food coloring so we could paint the raw dough.

And you can use the egg whites to paint the dough as well. This is great for holding sprinkles and other goodies.

The kids (both big and small) had fun painting their masterpieces.

Voila! Using egg whites really helps it to stick.

And the egg yolk with food coloring is fun for painting as well.

Batch 1 is ready to go in the oven.

So then we decorate some cooked ones that I had already made for the kids. I normally make my own frosting, but we had already used it all up when we had some friends over earlier in the month to make cookies. This worked just as well.

Not making as much of a mess as I had anticipated. I have some serious decorators on my hands.

Dancing with Daddy is a great way to pass the time while we wait for the cookies to come out of the oven.

We set some aside for Santa....

....and the rest are left just for us. Bon appetit.

Bennett explains it all

2011-12-21T10:21:00.000-06:00

My sweet 3 year old explaining the Christmas story. Two notes of interest-

1. She has a terrible cold. But it just makes her sound like she has a thick southern accent.

2. Yes, she is always this dramatic. Hand gestures and all.

Flashback

2011-12-20T12:26:00.000-06:00

Every Christmas I am reminded of the one we had 4 years ago. I am so thankful that is behind us and grateful still to this day that we were able to catch the DVT so early.

http://theredwebs.blogspot.com/2007/12/blessed.html

Conversation

2011-12-18T08:54:00.001-06:00

The Place: Our swagger wagon
The Scene: Driving around to look at lights

Bennett: Happy Hanukkah, Mom!
Me: Thanks, Bennett. But you don't really need to say that to me.
Bennett: Why? Are those not nice words?
Me: Oh, no. They are very nice words. But we say Merry Christmas in our family.
Bennett: But it's the season of Christmas! We have to say Happy Hanukkah!
Me: Sure. That's a wonderful thing to say, but I like it when you tell me Merry Christmas.
Bennett: Why?
Me: (taking a deep breath) Well, we tell our Jewish friends Happy Hanukkah.
Bennett: Who is Jewish?
Me: Mrs. Lori is Jewish so it would be nice to say Happy Hanukkah to her.
Bennett: But I WANT to say it to you!!!
Me: You are more than welcome to say it to me, but I like Merry Christmas better.
Bennett: WHY?
Me: Because I believe in Jesus.
Bennett: MRS. LORI DOESN'T BELIEVE IN JESUS???
Me: Well, if you are Jewish you believe in God, but not Jesus. However, we are Christians so we believe in Jesus.
Bennett: (starting to get hysterical) So we don't believe IN GOD?????
Me: Oh, yes, honey. We believe in both. We believe they are one in the same.
Bennett: BUT GOD IS JESUS' DADDY! WE DON'T BELIEVE JESUS HAS A DADDY?
Will: (piping up from his car seat) YESH WE DO BEWEEVE IN GOD!
**Both children are now crying**
Me: Ummm.... hey look at those lights! Pretty reindeer! Stop crying! Anyone want a piece of candy? (Muffled sounds of sobs from the back seat) Ummm.... Chick-fil-A anyone?

What's on your Chistmas tree?

2011-12-14T15:33:00.004-06:00

A few years ago Rob and I attended a Christmas party at the very elegant home of some friends of ours. We had never been to their home at Christmas before. We were both immediately drawn to all of the Nutcrackers in their home. They had beautiful Nutcrackers of all shapes and sizes. They adorned the house so perfectly and I could only imagine how they had been collected over the years. I thought that perhaps some of the smaller more unique ones had been purchased on trips overseas and that maybe some were gifts from friends. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Rob commented to the hostess that he loved her vast collection and she laughed and said, "Oh, those aren't ours. Nutcrackers are the theme my decorator picked this year and he designed the room. I'm sure they will all go back into a box of his after Christmas."

I have thought about that so many times over the years. And how many of you have been to homes where the trees had themes? Trees that could only have silver ornaments or were only decorated with angels. Did you know that forest green is so out this year? Kelly Green is supposedly the green of 2011. If the ribbon on your tree isn't that shade of green, then I don't even know what to say to you.

Fortunately, I love my crazy tree that has no theme whatsoever and is filled with hand prints of my kids, ornaments from friends, terrible paint on glass ornaments, and other knick knacks. I love it and I truly feel as if our tree has just begun. Rob and I have only been married 6 years and we didn't bring many ornaments into our marriage with us. I can't wait to watch our tree grow and watch the ornaments that are placed on it tell the story of our lives.

This year has been particularly sentimental. I have shed many tears looking at our tree.

We bought this for our American Fox hound 4 years ago. This is our first Christmas without him, but we will always keep his ornament on our tree. What a reminder of such a special pet.

We went on a trip to Disney World in 2007. I was 18 weeks pregnant and had just found out I was having a girl. We bought this ornament on our trip that fall. It was the first thing we bought for our baby girl. I have been so sentimental looking at this particular ornament this year and knowing that the unknown baby turned out to be my precocious, redheaded, and creative almost 4 year old. Oh, and Ariel happens to be her very favorite princess.

We moved to Kansas City in January of 2009. A dear friend of mine had a brunch for me right before I moved. I was pregnant with Will and very scared. She gave me this ornament of the Montgomery skyline and told me to always think of home whenever I hung it on our tree. I have been particularly homesick this Fall. I want to be with my cousin Elliot badly. I want to be there to cook her a meal, watch her kids, or just curl up and watch a chick flick while eating Goobers. Seeing this ornament makes me think of her and how happy I will be to go home and see her and the rest of my family.

And finally...... my favorite. I have cried a lot over these two ornaments this year. These were the very first Christmas ornaments Rob and I received as a couple. They were from my beloved Grandmother who passed away this summer. She told us that they were two lovebirds and to always hang them on the same branch of our tree. I didn't want to burst her bubble and tell her that they were snowmen and not lovebirds. She would just laugh and tell me that she knew that and to let her have her fun. These snowmen will always have a special place on our tree.

Who needs a Nutcracker theme when you have a story. A narrative. A timeline of your life waiting to be rediscovered every year. I can't wait to see what our tree looks like 30 years from now. I hope it will be filled with even more hand prints, tacky ornaments, and memories of loved ones who helped us fill our tree.

Being Set Apart

2011-12-13T17:52:00.000-06:00

One thing I wrestle with a lot is how to be set apart. I know that as a Christian I am called to be set apart from the crowd. Sometimes that can mean different things at different stages of life. I pray constantly for God to show me how this concept can work in my life, this very day, and to show me what that would look like on a daily basis.

Being set apart means to be made holy, consecrated to Him. Christian author Martha Noebel writes, "Christians are given a special role in life to serve Him. We are transferred from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. We are strangers to this world's system. Instead of thinking and acting like the world, we are set apart from this more common way of viewing and living life and are given a different purpose, which is to serve God and become more like Jesus. You could say that we are separated from worldliness and given new purpose in Jesus to be used by God."

A specific prayer of mine is always that God will give me different desires than those of the world. Desires to be constantly faithful to all that he has entrusted to me. But somehow I constantly get off track. Mainly because I want to fit in. I don't want to be different. I want my conversations to mirror those of my neighbors. I don't like being singled out as being different. Even though I know that is what God desires for me, I seem to fight it at every turn.

However, First Thessalonians Chapter 4 tells us that we are living only to please God. Let that sink in. To please God only. How many of us can we say that we do that? I know I live to please my husband, my children, my friends.... but what would my life look like if I truly lived to please God only? I truly believe that the rest would fall into place.

Chapter 4 clarifies some of these thoughts for me. It says that we are to encourage people who are afraid, live in peace with each other, help those who are weak, be patient with everyone, be sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong, and always try to do what is good for each other.

Wow! Do any of you feel that the head knowledge is there, but transferring these words from mere knowledge to action is so difficult sometimes? Chapter 5 goes on to say that we are to always be joyful, pray continually, give thanks for whatever happens, hold on to the good, and to not be like others (verse 6).

My continual prayer is for the Holy Spirit to transform me and to take these words and move them from my head into my heart.

Thankful

2011-12-05T08:44:00.001-06:00

I thought I should probably post about Thanksgiving before New Years Eve. I know you have all been on the edge of your seat waiting for this update. Well, your long wait is over. And if you don't know by now that I am kidding, then you don't read this blog nearly enough.

First of all, these are two of the things I am most grateful for. There aren't enough words to express the amount of gratitude I feel to God for entrusting me with the care of these two exquisite human beings. I am humbled and awed at the responsibility.

And I am kind of thankful for their Dad as well. Okay, beyond thankful. I can't believe to this day that God blessed me with the kindest husband I could have ever hoped for. I wake up every day still feeling like I hit the jack pot.

We had Bennett's Thanksgiving feast at her pre school. We thought she would be so excited to see us there. She wasn't. She was only happy to see her brother. She literally freaked out when he walked into her room. She is so so proud of him.

Another angle. She was still over the moon that he was there.

What is she most thankful for? If anyone didn't know that horses would be at the top of her list, then you don't know my child.

For the actual Thanksgiving holiday we went down South to Sweet Home Alabama. We drove 16 hours from Kansas City to Montgomery, Alabama in ONE DAY! And you know what? It was so easy. We got stuck in traffic in Nashville, but the kids did great! Rob and I could not get over how easy the trip was. It flew by and we were so happy to pull into my parents driveway.

The next day my sister and her family drove down from Birmingham to spend the weekend with us. Bennett and Will were so happy to see their grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. And you know what? So was I!

We had a great Thanksgiving filled with wonderful food and blessings that are far too numerous to count. That night the 5 cousins attempted their first movie outing all together. The whole family went to see "The Muppet Movie." Will lasted.... I don't know..... 20 minutes? And then he spent the rest of the time wandering from one relative to another and then back to his seat.

He did LOVE it though when the muppets sang the Mahna Mahna song during the closing credits. Mainly because Rob has been playing this video for the kids since they were babies. Will and Bennett recognized it instantly and went nuts. Here's the original video in case you have somehow missed it. If you have small children, show it to them. Trust me.

Anyhoo.... where was I? Oh, yes. The day after Thanksgiving I was able to spend some amazing quality time with my dear cousins, Erin and Elliot. I have blogged many times over the years about how these two are more like sisters than cousins to me. We were all raised together only a few miles apart and all went to the same private school together growing up. They were my first playmates and we did everything together when we were kids. Dance lessons, recitals, summers spent in the pool..... In fact, Erin and I were in the same class because we are only 5 months apart in age. She is due to have a baby girl in about a month and so I was thrilled to see her. It was our first time to all be together since my Grandmother's funeral this summer.

A lot has actually happened since my Grandmother passed away. Just about a month or so after Elliot was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a shock to the whole family, but she is dealing with it like she deals with everything in her life. With strength, grace, beauty, and the strongest faith in Jesus Christ imaginable. I humbly ask for any of you reading this to pray for her healing and for her recovery. She can explain things so much more eloquently in her own words.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/elliotwilliams

Seeing her alone was worth the entire trip.

Here are me and my sister with our cousins. The four Granddaughters of the incomparable Polly Patterson.

And here we are with all of our kids. Grandmom loved each of these "angel babies" so very much.

I love this picture. Of course I wish I had been smiling and not doing whatever I was doing, but I love the way Bennett and Elliot are looking at each other. Priceless.

Will wanted to kiss away Elliot's boo boo's.

I love my family!!

So, the next day was the Iron Bowl! Forget Christmas. If you live in Alabama you wait 364 days for this game. It is a big deal. It was held in Auburn this year which is only 45 minutes from where my parents live. Plus College Game Day way going to be there, so that settled it. I needed to drive to Auburn to to try to find Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews. Forget Lee Corso. H's on my bad list ever since he picked LSU to beat Bama this year. Never mind that they did. Croso is not my friend anymore. But we went, had a great time, and ran into some dear friends. Oh, and ummmm.... we won! ROLL TIDE!

All in all, being home was absolutely wonderful. I got to shop for cute southern clothes. This is the boys section by the way. I feel as if I needed to explain that to the 99% of you that are scratching your head in disbelief. Get over it. It's cute, dangit.

I got to eat good southern food!!

I got to catch up with dear friends who are so good for my soul.

I was able to worship at my home church. And best of all, I was able to spend Thanksgiving with the people who mean the most in the world to me. My family.

Although we had the easiest trip down, our trip home was a nightmare. We got majorly stuck in Thanksgiving traffic, the kids were terrible, and Will threw up the entire last leg of our trip. We couldn't even make it to exit ramps. We had to stop on the side of the road and change his clothes and clean the car seat in 30 degree weather multiple times. It was awful. And I was sad. I missed my family. But when I got home, I opened my phone and saw this note a certain someone had left me.

I can't wait to go home again at Christmas. And again, I do humbly ask that you keep Elliot in your prayers. We are confident that God's ways are perfect and that He is carrying her daily as she kicks this terrible disease to the curb.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Reasons why I suddenly stink at blogging

2011-11-17T10:18:00.001-06:00

It is ridiculous looking back at my old blog posts. I realized that in 2009 I blogged 181 times. 181 TIMES! What in the world? And in September of that year alone I blogged 22 times. And how many times have I blogged this November? Twice. What is going on?

Well my friends, I present to you the reasons I have not been blogging lately. I know after reading this list you will not only understand, but will also agree with my reasons.

Reason #1- Who has two thumbs and hoards all of our pictures? That guy! The tall one. Not the short one.

Meet the number 1 reason I don't blog as much. The bearded wonder not only takes all of our pictures, but he downloads them on his computer and deletes them off of the camera before I can blink twice. And then he won't give them to me until he has "worked on them." By the time I want to blog about, oh say my children's first day of school, 8 weeks have gone by. Blame J. Robert. Public enemy #1 to all bloggers.

Reason #2- The small creatures in my house actually want me to play with them.

It was lovely when they would sit in an excersaucer or on a play mat and could entertain themselves. Now they actually need me. A lot. And it is usually when I sit in front of my computer. And you know what? These years and fleeting and so I happily oblige. Computers and blogs will always be there. My kids will not.

Here are a few shots of the brave princess riding her valiant dragon off into battle. And please note that I stole the pictures from Public Enemy #1's computer before he could work on them in Photoshop. That's why the colors are off. Oh, well. I care not.

The dragon vows to protect the princess at all costs.

The dragon got bored and wanted to play with the castle.


Then the dragon got sleepy, so King Daddy stepped in to save the day.

Movie nights in their recycled cardboard box train cars are a weekly ritual.

Reason #3- Couponing. Y'all, I'm obsessed. I love it. I have saved my family SO much money. Which instead of going towards a trip to Disney World has all gone to new tires and a battery for our swagger wagon, but that's besides the point. Look at the pictures below and then think about the fact that I spent only
$25 for everything you see below.

A lot of it I got for free so I am giving it away to friends and also to an abused women's shelter. They are always in need of beauty supplies, so it feels so good to be couponing not only to save money, but to help others. I have also been able to donate a lot of canned goods to local food banks. But it definitely takes time and has hindered my blogging greatly.

Reason #4. Look at my computer. Just look at it.

It was already an old hand me down computer from my brother-in-law and then my son got a hold of it. Notice the missing keys. The tab key, the 'a' key, the underscore key, and a lot of the keys that do work stick now. I don't know what he did, but it does make typing almost too annoying to fool with.

Bennett's family

But we are alive and well. Bennett is a reading and spelling fool. She can spell up to 15 words and reading is really starting to click with her. She also loves to color and draw. She had a fabulous parent/teacher conference and her sweet teachers were very complimentary. One of the things they commented on was her drawing. This picture was drawn a month ago and since then she has really started to draw hair and more facial features, which is apparently a good thing for a 3 year old. I don't know. I just like them. Will has entered the terrible 2's with a vengeance. Well, not terrible, but more like ACTIVE 2's. The kid is non stop. But underneath the energy he is still my sweet and cuddly Will who loves to be held and read to more than anything else. I am already mourning the end of college football season but hopeful about Bama's chances to play for the National Championship. I am not updating you on Rob because he went to New York City without me this week and I am still bitter.

And that's all she wrote. For now.

Halloween 2011- The Halloween that almost wasn't

2011-11-02T10:54:00.002-05:00

I will start off by posting our family theme this year. Let me recap first.

2008- The Lion the witch and the wardrobe.

2009- Bees and Beekeepers

2010- Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. Naturally.

2011- Second star to the right and straight on until morning.

Can you tell that we love Halloween? And I have plenty of pictures of me and Rob dressed up at parties before we had kids. I'll dig those out one day. But anyhooo.... back to this year.

We started Halloween a week ago by going to Deanna Rose's children's farmstead with our best friends in Kansas City, the Pullins. It was a fabulous evening where the Neverland crew met the Superhero crew.

Deanna Rose has an event every Halloween called, "Night of the Living Farm." I highly recommend it if you want to check it out next year. Our kids had a blast and I think the grown ups might have enjoyed it as well.

They had entire pathways lit with glowing pumpkins. Very cool.

And there were hayrides of course. They had a scary hayride for older kids and non scary ones for the younger set. We stupidly did both. Here is a pic of us on the non scary one. You know, the one where idiots dressed up like monsters weren't chasing our kids with chainsaws.

Don't let JM Barie fool you. Hook secretly had a thing for Wendy.

The night before Halloween we took the kids to a little neighborhood Fall Festival. Bennett decided she didn't want to be Tinker Bell anymore. Thank goodness we had already taken our family picture. She insisted that she had to be Ariel. She just had to be. Because Ariel is beautiful, fun, great, and has red hair. Those were Bennett's words. Not mine. And since Bennett wasn't going to be Tinker Bell, Will wanted to be a dragon. We had these costumes in our dress up box. I didn't care. I wanted them to go with it. So we did.

The festival was so much fun. They enjoyed all of the fun games where they got.... wait for it... more candy! Oh, and look at the scenery in the background? Isn't Kansas City so pretty this time of the year? I love it.

And they got to march in a costume parade.

Painting pumpkins was a must.

Me and my little spooks.

Cutest dragon ever!

And so now we come to the sad part of our tale. Even though we had several outings and had enjoyed the Halloween season, it wasn't the big day yet. And I LOVE Halloween. So we decided to have some friends over to celebrate with us. We had several families coming and the plan was to get the kids together, have some appetizers, take pictures, trick or treat around the neighborhood, and then come back to have dinner and watch the Chiefs game on TV. Sounds great, right??

I spent the day decorating and baking. We had spooky graveyard cake, broomstick bags filled with snack mix, spooky hands....

There were cupcakes that Bennett and I decorated together....

And the wicked witch of the East appropriately crashed into our house to greet our guests.

We were ready to Par-Tay!!

And then a very sad thing happened. Will got sick. Very sick. As in throwing up non stop. We took him to the doctor first thing Halloween morning and she said that she thought he would be okay and just to watch him throughout the day. When he was still sick at lunch time, we made the call to cancel our party. So sad. I felt like a girl all dressed up for prom and then her date didn't show. Sigh....

But we rallied. We're Websters after all!!! We watched Will all day and by evening, he felt great. We decided to let him go trick or treating anyway. We were sad that we didn't have our party with our friends, but we made lemonade out of some very stinky and nauseating lemons.

Will's friend Rachel decided to brave the illness and join us. They only came into our house and braved the germs for a few minutes, but we hoped she would be okay out in the open air and safely protected with Buzz Lightyear's germ proof armor. Oh, and Bennett refused to be Tinker Bell again. Oh, well. I just can't compete with the awesomeness that is Ariel.

Trick or Treat.

Love this picture. Love, love, love it!

Our friends may have not been able to come in and have dinner with us, but we were still going to eat those cupcakes! So there, stomach viruses!

So, in the end we did have a great Halloween. I won't really go into the fact that Bennett was up all night Monday night throwing up or how I got 3 hours of sleep because I was washing sheets, pillows, pajamas, and blankets at all hours of the night. I won't talk about the fact that the turn signal on our van quit working and that we found out on Halloween Day that it would cost $700 to fix. I won't tell you that as of Tuesday night Will was still throwing up.

It looks like we had a whole lot more tricks than treats this year. Oh, well. I will not be deterred. Already looking forward to 2012! Happy Halloween, everyone!

October 2011- Throwing it all out there to see what sticks

2011-10-30T10:06:00.003-05:00

I have serious blogging deficiency lately. This used to be something I could keep up with, but I confess that the older my kids get, the more they want me to play with them. Geez.... what lame kids. I could blog a whole lot more frequently when they just laid on their play mats and blew bubbles at me.

So, I am just going to throw a whole lot of pictures on the blog and see what happens. There may not be a cohesive narrative, but at least I'm getting them out there. These are pictures from the month of October. I am not posting a lot from various Fall Festivals that we've been to, because really, do you all need to see any more pictures of Bennett riding a horse?

Here are some pictures from my parents visiting, Halloween prep, and other odds and ends.

Mommy and Daddy Suttle got here and my kids were so happy. They hadn't seen them since this summer. They stood on our fireplace and sang every song they knew to them. Every. single. song.

Mom and Dad went to Bennett's pre school class and read a story to all of the adoring 3 year olds. They were a hit!

Bennett was so happy to have her Grandmother at her school. So proud.

We did whole lot of outings while my parents were here.

And of course we had to get dressed up the watch the Alabama game. Roll Tide!!!

My parents need to come back soon!! It is way too long between visits.

After my parent left, Bennett really missed them. She came home from school the day after they left with this picture that she had drawn. Her grandparents are the biggest ones and she also drew her cousins. But I have no idea why she drew Mommy's friend, a bad guy, and corn. I don't know..... I just don't know.

Let's see...... what else? We've had a lot of fun enjoying the beautiful fall weather and all of the things that go along with the season. Hayrides, festivals, pumpkins..... I wish every month could be October.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a great time driving to Springfield, Missouri to see Riley Segars starring as Flat Stanley in a community theatre production of the show. Riley took my acting classes in Montgomery for years and was also a cast member of our kids TV show, Chain Reaction 222. Oh, and he's the son of our best friends. Needless to say when his Mom called to tell me about the production, we knew that we had to go.

Riley rocked!! Way to go, Flat Stanley!! Here are our kiddos with 3 of the 4 Segars boys outside by the marquis. The oldest Segars kid was too cool for school and decided to hang out with his friends that night. Did I really just use that phrase? No wonder he didn't want to hang out with us.

Bennett and Will with some of the awesome cast members!

We went out afterwards for some ice cream. Bennett thought she was big stuff walking through a city at night to get ice cream. Will was just upset that Mommy was too far ahead of him taking a picture.

Great job, Riley!! We are SO proud of you!!

Hmmm..... what else? Well, we had fun the other day jumping in piles of leaves.

We carved our pumpkins...

.....roasted the seeds....

.... and now we are ready for Halloween!

Happy October everyone! Forget December. This really is the most wonderful time of the year!

New Fall Recipes

2011-10-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

My parents were in town this past week which means I got to be creative in the kitchen. I love having people to cook for. If I didn't have kids and had unlimited funds for groceries, I think I could bake all day long. Having company gives me a great excuse to try new recipes.

I cooked some good 'ole standard fare such as Vegetable Beef Soup, Italian Herb Chicken, Sugar Cured Ham, Baked Ziti, Cheese Straws, Pumpkin Muffins, Apple Dumplings, and so on and so forth. Yum! But I tried two new recipes that I thought I would share because they tasted just like Fall. Is that weird? Yes, it is.

Okay- first up we have Cinnamon Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Basically this is just an autumn twist on the standard grilled cheese.

You start off by chopping up some tart apples. I would actually chop them smaller than I did. I did apple chunks and I think they need to be smaller for the sandwich.

And then you saute the apple chunks until they are tender.

While the apple slices are cooking, cook and stir 1/3 cup chopped walnuts and 1 tablespoon of honey over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until lightly toasted.

In a small bowl, beat 3 tablespoons of cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon until smooth. Side note- I doubled the recipe because I was making a lot of sandwiches, but I think I used too much cream cheese. My Mom loved it and thought it was perfect, but I would cut down on the cream cheese. To each his own.

Once the walnuts and honey are toasted, add them to the cream cheese mixture.

Spread mixture over one side of cinnamon raisin bread and then add apple mixture over another slice of cinnamon raisin bread.

Layer each slice of bread with Muenster cheese and throw the sandwich on your griddle or on a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray.

Toast sandwich on each side until golden brown and voila! You have a great updated twist on the classic grilled cheese. And as my family can attest, they make great left overs. You can heat them up the next day and they are still delicious.

The second recipe is for Bacon Apple Cider Biscuits. I served these the night I cooked some sugar cured ham. I will confess that that I thought these would have more of a cinnamon/sweet taste. But they tasted more like regular biscuits. They were still good though and Rob is already asking when we can have them again.

Cook 6 bacon strips and then set them aside. Refrain from eating them. And also refrain your dog from jumping up on the counter to get them.

In a large bowl combine 2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon apple pie spice, and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.

Cut in 7 tablespoons of butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add crumbled bacon. Then stir in 3/4 cup of either apple cider or apple juice.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 8-10 times. Roll into a 10x6 inch rectangle. Brush melted butter over dough and sprinkle with cinnamon. Side Note- I don't have the dough below quite shaped into the 10x6 inch rectangle. It was well on its way though.

Cut dough into 8 rectangles. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. I used my baking stone.

Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

And finally, my Mom and I made rainbow cookies with Bennett. My good friend Mary gave Bennett a huge book of cookie recipes. My Mom told her to pick any cookie in the book and we would make it when she came to visit. So of course Bennett picked an incredibly complicated recipe, but a promise is a promise.

I am not going to post the whole recipe because it really does take awhile and involves lots and lots of food coloring. :-) But if you would like the recipe, please e-mail me and I would love to send it to you. But after all of the mixing and stirring, we had 4 bowls of dough and we colored each one. You then had to form one part of the dough into a log roll and then place it inside a rectangle of more dough. Does that sound complicated? It was.

Once the dough was made and all wrapped up inside of the other sections of dough we had to stick it in the fridge for an hour. After it was cooled, we cut it in half and therefore created a rainbow. Bennett was thrilled.

And Voila! Bennett's coveted rainbow cookies. I'm just glad we pulled it off.

And of course we had the two cutest taste testers in the world. They got to add the finishing touches of sprinkles before consuming way too many. Cookies that is.

Bon Appetit. :-)

Okay, y'all. I'm just going to brag.

2011-10-11T21:39:00.001-05:00

I think any Mom with a blog struggles between capturing your children's milestones and sharing them without coming across as bragging. I have always tried to walk a fine line between being so proud of my kids and what they are doing and flat out bragging.

All that is about to change in this blog post. There is no fine line to be walked. I am just going to brag. Feel free to walk away now or read on at your own risk.

Here I go. I warned you.

My baby is an AMAZING SWIMMER!!!!!! I mean, like amazing. And I am so so so so proud of him!

Let me back up. Bennett has been taking swim lessons since January. Normally Will just goes with me and sits patiently in a chair and waits. Lately Bennett has started doing open swim after her lesson. She plays in the water with her classmates for half an hour and now poor Will has to sit every week for an hour patiently and I have to struggle to keep him supplied with water, snacks, and books. Not fun.

Then I noticed that the lesson right after Bennett's was for beginners. I hadn't planned on starting Will this early, but I thought why not? We're there anyway, he wanted to, there's a class available..... let's do it.

And ummmmm..... he's a natural. He is so good. On his very first lesson his teacher was able to let him go and swim unassisted with only a bubble. She said it normally takes about many many lessons to do this-
And then he SWAM ACROSS THE POOL! Granted, with a bubble flotation device on his back, but still.... I've sat through 10 months of Bennett's lessons. I know how long it took her to do that, and Will is only 2 years and 3 months. Look at this.

Normally they hold on to them and keep them by the edge of the pool for the first few lessons. Not Will. He swam across the pool many times without holding on to his teacher on his very first lesson!! I was SO proud of him. So was his big sister who swam over from her play time to give him a big hug.

Okay, fast forward a week. He asked every single day to swim. We had to wait a week. So, guess what happened on his 2nd lesson?

He began jumping off the side of the pool into the water! What? And keep in mind, these aren't intensive 2 hour lessons. They are 30 minute lessons. This was his 2nd 30 minute lesson.

And now his teacher wasn't even in the water. She could sit on the side and instruct him. She said that she had never in all of her years of teaching had a child pick it up this fast. Especially a 2 year old. A barely 2 year old. She said sometimes older kids who practiced in pools got it quickly, but never a 2 year old who has only been in a pool a handful of times in his life. She was amazed. By this point she was standing and just talking to him.

She then called the owner of the Aquatics Center out of his office to watch Will. I told you I was bragging. I don't care. I am about to burst with pride. And then she took OFF his bubble! She didn't take any bubbles off of Bennett's class for months and they were 3 years old. She took off Will's on his 2nd lesson. Look at him here swimming without any flotation device whatsoever.

I am so incredibly proud of my fearless boy who is a natural in the water! Way to go, Will!

Fall Fun and the Worst Cakewalk Ever!

2011-10-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was one of those weekends that was picture perfect. The weather was gorgeous, we spent the weekend enjoying fall festivals, I made pumpkin muffins, and Alabama beat Florida. Yup. It doesn't get much better in my book.

We began the weekend by attending the Leawood Fall Festival on Friday night. Our evening started off wonderfully. The kids had their faces painted and had fun on all of the inflatables.

I forgot socks and this was the result. Check out Black Foot sliding down the big slide.

****Side Note*** My son has no fear. At all. He has been going down these huge slides since he was 20 months old. No fear, I say.

Will's best friend Rachel joined us for the fun. Will loves being with her, except when he's afraid that she's checking out his food.

Nothing says Fall more than having your dinner on a haybale.

I have absolutely no idea who this is supposed to be, but if it's in a costume, we'll take a picture with it.

We went on a fun hayride, played more on the inflatables, and then it was time for the cakewalk. The cakewalk that will haunt me for the rest of my life. We didn't get any pictures of what went down at the beginning, so let me explain. This was Bennett's first cakewalk and it was quite possibly our introduction to her competitive spirit. She was crushed when she didn't win. Crushed! So we tried a 2nd time and then a 3rd. She was sobbing. And then she got angry. This was a picture of a very ticked off Bennett on her 4th try.

She didn't win that time either. So we brought in the reinforcements. We forced her brother and her friend Rachel to join. Increase the odds, right? You can't really tell in this picture, but she had been bawling just prior to this shot. There's Will in front of her and Rachel behind trying to support a friend. It didn't help.

She didn't win that time either. So here comes parent dilemma #526. Do we make her quit and teach her that winning isn't everything and that it was fun just to participate? Or do we let her go on and teach her that sometimes you have to work hard and keep trying for what you want? Or does her super competitive mother keep pushing her until she wins? What do you think happened?

On try #8.......... TA DA!

I cannot tell you how happy this made her.

And seriously, I was about to sneak out to the dang grocery store and spend 5 bucks on a cake so we could leave, but the look on her face when they called her number was priceless. Rob and I still aren't sure if they rigged it to get rid of us or not, but who cares?

Our family was so happy that we stayed for the big movie they were showing on the lawn. It was a great evening.

The next morning we woke up ad drive to Weston, Missouri. Oh my goodness, what a great town. I have to go back there some day when there aren't a ton of people there for a Fall Festival. I want to go and just soak in the quaint little town with the adorable main street and rich history. I absolutely loved it. We got there early to watch the parade.

The parade was so much fun to watch, but by far the best float was the random float with middle aged men playing Middle Eastern music. In the middle of Missouri. I don't know why. But they were all kinds of awesome.

Here are some other shots from our morning in Weston.

After spending the morning in Weston, we stopped off at the Big Red Barn which is a pumpkin patch, apple orchard, petting zoo, and so much more all rolled into one. We were hungry so lunch was a priority.

And then Bennett decided to check out the pumpkins. She was quite impressed with the selection.

And then what did we do next? Come on, we're Websters. We rode horses of course. Check out the size of the one Bennett got to ride. This was her biggest horse yet. That's me waving in the background. In case you needed me to explain that. Doesn't she look like awesome riding this horse? I was so proud of her.

And guess who else got to ride? Will got to ride the little pony. He looked SO cute in his little helmet.

What a fun place and what a fun day!

And then we came home to eat freshly made pumpkin muffins and watch this-

ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!! What a perfect weekend!

40 Years Young

2011-10-03T20:11:00.002-05:00

Rob turned 40 about a month ago, but he really doesn't look a day over 39. Okay, maybe one day older. We started the celebration this summer. He was in Alabama for only a day so I "tried" to surprise him by throwing a party while we were there. The surprise didn't work out, but he was so happy to be surrounded by close friends and family members that I got over him finding out early about the party.

What a great cake! Rob looked a little nervous though.

The whole group wanting to be as cool as Rob with their red moustaches. It didn't work. There's only one J. Robert Webster. And I claim him. How lucky am I?

Debbie and Keri trying to figure out the lyrics to our "Ode to Rob" song. Will's in the back looking for a cookie.

Our best friends in Alabama- Corey, Anthony, and Wendy. We really miss these guys.

The beautiful and incomparable Lenore

We love Jody and the McKinnons!

Our planning team reunited- us with Cyndi, John, and Debbie

And so many more friends were able to come! Rob has said several times since that he was overwhelmed with the fact that the people he loved most in the world were all gathered together in one room. It was pretty awesome.

Then for his actual birthday, Rob met his siblings in New Orleans where they spent a weekend catching up, taking tons of pictures, and eating great food. There wasn't a better way he could spend his birthday than with his awesome sister and twin brother.

When he got home from NOLA, his best friend Shane Segars was waiting. He had driven up from Springfield, MO to spend the day with the birthday boy.

I had the house decorated. Of course. If you know me at all, you know that there are going to be some streamers. And we had balloons, a list of 40 reasons we love Daddy, and his favorite candy bars taped all over the house.

The kids were so happy that Daddy was home from his trip and were all over the birthday boy. We opened presents right away and he got some great stuff. But the best thing was a canvas I had made that had sentences from 40 of his closest friends and family members saying what they loved about Rob.

It was a hit. My husband doesn't get overwhelmed easily. This got him though.

Here it is displayed in our home. A daily reminder of how special and loved my husband is.

Happy 40th Birthday to the best person that I know. And I honestly mean that. He really is quite amazing. Here's to 40 more!

Typical

2011-09-22T15:57:00.001-05:00

Sometimes he can't even make it inside the house before beginning the tantrum.

How cool is this?

2011-09-22T07:52:00.001-05:00

I woke up this morning to find a message in my inbox that someone put the picture of the train we made for Will's birthday on a webpage called "Best of Web Thomas Parties."

Awesome.

And I didn't submit it at all. I guess they found it by searching the web. Pretty cool. Granted, we didn't have a Thomas party- it was just a generic train party, but the color scheme of the train fit I suppose.

Here's the website. Our train, The Webster Express, is in the 2nd group of pictures in the middle. Pretty cool!

The Great American Campout and other stuff

2011-09-17T14:04:00.001-05:00

This is one of those posts where I go through my camera and decide to post a whole bunch of random pictures and try to weave them into some sort of cohesive narrative.

Try is the operative word here.

I'll begin with our backyard camping adventure. Rob and I want to take the kids camping this Fall and so we thought we would do a trial run in our backyard. It went really well, but I think camping in nature would be a lot more peaceful than camping on a Friday night in our subdivision where our neighbors are throwing a house party. I would rather sleep to the sounds of crickets rather than car horns and Lil Wayne.We began with dinner and smores. Of course.

Daddy has to help reload the marshmellows.

Somebody really loves them!

Settling into our tent for the night. Goodnight.....

Okay, so I didn't make it all night. Between the thumping bass of our neighbors party and my husbands snoring, I gave it up just before midnight. I took Will inside with me. Mainly because if he woke up in the middle of the night and I wasn't there, he would have a nervous breakdown. I am not even remotely kidding. He would. But super trooper Bennett and Daddy made it all night.

We are loving our local children's farmstead this time of year. We have a season pass so we like to go as often as possible. I wish every community had one of these. Deanna Rose's rocks. Plain and simple.We have to go straight to the horses. Every time.

Do you notice a theme to my blog posts? And can someone generous donor please send us money so I can start saving for horseback riding lessons? Couldn't she have a cheaper passion?

After riding the horses we decided to go fishing.

Mommy caught one!

And then so did Bennett! She felt it pull and yanked it up all by herself! She was so proud. She has told everyone this week that she caught a fish. Her teacher, her swim coach, her dance instructor, her pediatrician, the mailman....

Will wasn't really into the fish. But he was all about feeding bottles of milk to the baby goats.

And we always end up at the playground.

And here's the BEST part about having a 2 and 3 year old. For the first time since I became a parent, I can sit down and relax. I don't have to help them up the slides, across the walkways, or down the big ladders. I can sit and observe. Heavenly.

Alright, random pics from my camera. I found this cute one of my kids with their best buddies, Levi and Crosby. You can totally tell which set of kids go together.

We made puppets on a rainy day. The kids played with these all day long. Clearly Will needed a little help on how to hold one.

We found a gorgeous patch of sunflowers during one of our family drives. We like to get some coffee, roll down the windows, and see what we can find. I think we had a great discovery this day.

I think that's it for now. Off to ponder my typical Saturday dilemma. Play with my kids or watch college football? The latter usually wins. There are 6 other days of the week to play with them.

Where were you?

2011-09-11T19:43:00.007-05:00

September 11th, 2001

I was living in Montgomery, Alabama for only a few months. I was in between leaving my year on the road with the Missoula Children's Theatre and my move to New York City. I had been in Charlotte, NC the day before and had just flown in to Alabama with my Dad on September 10th. I had been auditioning for some theatre jobs. I was on a plane the day before. Just typing that gives me chills.

I was working for a few months at WCOV Fox 20 doing sales and promotions. I watched the Today Show as I got ready for work. Nothing special. I remember they were talking about Michael Jordan retiring again. As I was driving to work I heard the radio stations taking about a plane crash. When I walked in the lobby the TV was on and it had just happened. The first plane had just hit the north tower.

We all know what happened next. I spent the day huddled in the lobby with co workers. We watched the whole thing. We watched every minute live including the instant both towers fell. When I went home at 5:00, I just hugged my parents for what seemed like hours.

My Dad worked at the Pentagon from 1990-2000. I actually interned there in the summer of '97. I remember his shock as he tried to figure out where the plane had hit. Were his co-workers safe? Nobody knew at that point. It was so confusing. I just kept redialing my friends that lived in NYC. All I got was busy signals. I think I watched CNN until dawn the next morning. Nobody could sleep.

I had an apartment hunting trip in NYC scheduled for the first week in October. I had already bought my plane ticket and there was no way I was going to miss that trip. I wanted so badly to be in the city I loved so much. The security was understandably tight. There were soldiers everywhere. Nerves were on edge. But I was happy to be there.

I took these shots while I was in NYC. These were taken just three weeks after 9/11.

For reference, this was obviously the before shot.

This was the same angle in early October, 2001. You can still see the smoke and the twisted metal coming out of buildings. This was as close as they would let us get so this was taken about 4 blocks away.

Another shot. By the way, these were taken during the daytime. It appears to b dark because there was still so much dust everywhere. It clouded the sky.

Taken downtown in Washington Square. You can see that people still had missing posters up. Heartbreaking.

My friends and I stayed downtown for hours and just cried.

Scene outside of a fire station in mid town. I believe that this company had lost several members, but I can't remember how many.

I do remember the very last time I was in the World Trade Center towers. They had a TKTS booth there. That is where you can buy discount tickets to Broadway shows. Most tourists use the one in Times Square and so locals who wanted to catch an evening show would go to the one at the WTC. It was the summer of 1999 and I was working at a theatre outside of Philadelphia. We would drive into the city when we had nights off to catch a show. I went in with some cast members and we went to the towers to the TKTS booth to buy tickets to see, "Annie get Your Gun." It was so busy and bustling and alive! That was the last time I would ever walk inside the towers.

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4

Catching Up

2011-09-03T16:31:00.009-05:00

I sat here for 5 minutes and tried to think of a header for this blog post. And folks, after said 5 minutes, I got nothin'. So then I tried to keep it as simple and basic as possible. "Catching Up" is what I came up with. I am nothing short of a genius.

Rob is away this weekend celebrating his birthday in New Orleans with his siblings. His present from me is 3 days away from the little ones. In his absence I have been watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and re reading Anne of Green Gables for the 51st time. I am a walking cliche.

Oh, and I've been watching college football. Because that's what we do on weekends in the Fall. And yes, I will root for any SEC team when they're not playing Alabama. Except for Auburn. Because I can't.

On to the photos. We went to a great festival in Parkville, Missouri. I love exploring new areas and this one was fantastic. Such an adorable little town. I love them. I wish more than anything that I could live in an old neighborhood within walking distance of a quaint main street where I would know all of the shop owners. Maybe one day. I love this main street area....

...and this local ice cream parlor....

...And this mill.... Heavenly.

Of course, what do the Websters do right off the bat? Think folks. If you were a Webster, what would be the very first thing that you would find? One guess.
Will is starting to bcome as obsessed as his sister

Love local restaurants. If I could help it, I would never eat at a chain restaurant again. Except for Chick-fil-A. Of course.

Future date night, perhaps?

It has been ridiculously hot here so I am racking my brain thinking of craft projects. One morning we had fun making crowns for my little royals.

And then it cooled down enough for them to go outside and play "library." Bennett checks out books and then Will hits her with them. That's how we roll.

We took the kids to a real horse show. Bennett has a lot of books about horse competitions and so we thought it would fun to take her to a real one so she could see if it was something she might want to do in the future. She loved it as much as we hoped she would.

I will post more later. Pride and Prejudice is almost over and I have 3 chapters left in the 6th Anne book of the series so I need to go and have a good cry. Feel free to openly mock me. I deserve it.

Summer Night

2011-08-28T20:53:00.007-05:00

Two years ago we went to the park in our neighborhood and took these beautiful pictures.

Then last year we went to the same park and took this sweet shots of the kids in the same spot.

And so we continued our tradition this weekend and went and got these pictures in the same park down the street from our house. These little guys make my heart melt more and more every day that passes.

Polly Patterson

2011-08-24T22:01:00.050-05:00

It hasn't even been 2 months since my beloved Grandmother passed away. In some ways it seems like it has been years. I am still grieving heavily. I think I will for a long time. This blog post is more for me. I want to record my feelings and thoughts while they are still fresh and raw. I want to write this down for my children to read one day. I know this is very long and very personal, but this one is for me.

Is it odd to call your Grandmother your best friend? I remember in college when I would introduce my 70 year old Grandmother as my best friend and my friends would give me strange looks. And then they would meet her and they would totally get it. What other Grandmother would hang out with the cast of West Side Story at a 24 hour diner late in the evening? And what other Grandmother would hold everyone there captive with her stories and her laugh? Whenever she would inevitably get on the airplane to head back home, my friends would ask, "Can she be my Grandmom too?"

I can't remember a time in my life when my Grandmother wasn't a huge part of it. Growing up, I don't think I ever had any other baby-sitters. I just had my Grandmom and Grandaddy. When I was sick at school and had to check out, I can remember that crimson cadillac parked out front and my Grandmother sitting in the office so worried about her angel baby.

That's what we all were. Angel Babies. There were four granddaughters and we were all angel babies. And butterflies.

I loved spending the night with my grandparents growing up. They only lived a few miles away, so I had that lucky honor quite often. I remember getting to eat all of the vanilla ice cream that I wanted. I remember my Grandmother slept every night with a pink satin pillow and sat on the edge of her bed every night to put on her cold cream. I always thought that she had the most beautiful skin in the world. I wanted to have skin just like her when I grew up. Some nights I would climb into bed with her. She would always say, "Oh, angel baby. I thought you would never come in here." And then she would rub my back until I fell asleep.

I don't think any of us Granddaughters can talk about our Grandmother without talking about her pool. That's what we did nearly every day in the summer. We played in our Grandmother's pool. I can still see her brown hair peeking out from the window as she watched to make sure that we were all safe. In the evenings she would put on her bathing suit and shower cap and come swim with us. She couldn't get her hair wet though. Her hair could only get wet once a week as she had it done at her salon just like any other true Southern lady.

She instilled in me a great love for Alabama football. She never missed a game and even now the words, "Roll Tide" made me think of her impish smile and infectious life. Holidays at her house were the best. I have such warm and happy memories of Easter Egg Hunts, Christmas afternoons, baked chicken legs, creamed corn, my uncle playing the piano, putting on recitals with my cousins, playing ping pong on the porch.... it was idyllic and I am so grateful for the memories.

When I was a child, my Grandmother was my everything. She was my world.

We moved to Northern Virginia when I was 12. My Grandfather had only passed away a week before our move. The hardest thing about moving was leaving my Grandmother. But it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I think I spent more quality time with her than ever due to our move. She would come up to visit us and she and I had a blast going all over Washington DC together. Since she passed away, I have rediscovered the best home movies of us touring all of the monuments, playing in the snow, and dancing together in our kitchen.

I have one very distinct memory that still makes me tear up to this day. When we first moved to Washington, I missed her terribly. Sometimes my longing for her was unbearable. She came to visit us when we had only lived there for a few months and my happiness to be with her again was so evident. I felt complete with her arms around me. Her familiar smell comforted me. I loved seeing her pink satin pillow in our guest room and her cold cream on my bathroom counter. When she left, I was devastated. I had lived so close to her all of my life and the distance was hard on me. I went to the guest room where she had been staying and just cried. Then I looked in the closet and noticed that she had left her beautiful fur coat behind. I smelled it and it smelled just like my beautiful Grandmother. I burst into tears and sank to the bottom of the closet. I just held on to her coat because it was some sort of physical reminder of her. I will never forget sitting at the bottom of that closet, holding her coat, and crying because I missed my Grandmother so much.

Another plus of us moving to DC was that I got to spend my summers in Alabama with my both of my Grandmothers. A few of the pictures in here are of my Grandmother Suttle. I was extremely close to her and many of the stories in here could apply to her as well. She passed away nearly 5 years ago and there aren't many days that go by when I don't wish I could pick up the phone and ask for her advice on a recipe or run to her house for a game of gin rummy. I started this blog after she passed away, but I will need to write a whole other one on how much she meant to me. It is so hard to believe now that they are both gone.

I do believe however that those summers are why I remained so close to Grandmom Patterson my whole life. We were best friends on those hot summer days. My cousin Erin would always come over and the three of us did everything together. We went walking at the mall, had breakfast at donut shops, swam in the pool, watched Days of our Lives, discussed the upcoming football season, and just enjoyed being together. We were the three musketeers and I am so grateful for those lazy summers together.

I loved going to church with her every Sunday. She loved showing me off to all of her friends. She introduced me as her butterfly who floated away for awhile, but had found its way back home. I went to so many watermelon socials at Woodley Baptist Church and I would get so jealous when all of the other little kids there would run up and call her their Grandmother. How dare they? She was my Grandmother. But I don't blame them. Who wouldn't want her? And I was lucky enough to have her. I held her hand with such pride. It didn't matter that I was 15 years old. I would hold her hand any day of the week.

Those summer days with her were magical. I learned the names of all the ladies in her beauty shop and they loved me in return. I went "visiting" with Grandmother nearly every day. That's when my eyes were really opened to what a beautiful and special lady she really was. We were always visiting someone in the hospital or holding the hand of an elderly shut in. She was full of love, compassion, and holiness. I watched Grandmom pray over so many people and she taught me by example what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ.

My absolute favorite days were the days when we would just run away. That was always our inside joke. Some days Grandmom would just say to me, "Do you want to run away today?" Those days were the best! We had no agenda. We would just go. Sometimes we would end up in Ozark, Alabama. She would take me to visit her relatives and oh, the stories I heard. Grandmom would tell me stories about her life growing up, her parents, her siblings, and her life. I soaked it up and she loved the fact that I would listen to her. She used to tell me how much it meant to her that I would drive hours with her to visit family members and listen to her stories. Little did she know that I would go anywhere with her and listen about anything. I just loved her that much. I still miss our run away days terribly.

I remember when I started becoming interested in Broadway musicals. Grandmom went to the movie store and rented every single one she could find. We spent a whole week watching a different musical every night. Oklahoma was our favorite. One summer I spent with her happened to be the 92 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She and I watched it every single night and decided that we knew more than the judges. We laughed so hard as we yelled out the scores for the divers!

I do remember several times when we would go out to clean off Grandaddy's grave. I told her that I didn't like going out there. When she asked me why not, I would tell her that I didn't like seeing her headstone with a birth date, but not a date for her death. I told her that I didn't like thinking about the day she would die and she would look at me and say, "Oh, honey. That won't be a sad day. That is going to be a celebration. You just know that will be a day of rejoicing. Don't you dare be sad on that day."

Who didn't love her? My high school friends wrote letters to her. They wanted her to be their Grandmother as well. They loved writing to their pretend Grandmother, Polly Patterson. I was so incredibly proud of her and honored to be her Granddaughter.

I loved driving down to Alabama to see her when I was on breaks from college. I caught up with the ladies at the beauty shop, resumed my duties of being her sidekick while visiting the elderly, and just felt her love. She would say, "Oh, my butterfly has flitted all over this country, but found her way home again."

I traveled a lot after college, but I got letters regularly from my Grandmother. In every letter she included a bible verse, a $20 bill, and a reminder to never forgot whose daughter I really was. It was a reminder constantly that I was a daughter of the King. I received letters in nearly every state and even in some European countries. She always wanted to know what I was seeing and doing. She was fascinated by my travels and wanted to pore over pictures of castles and countrysides. I have many of her letters in my Bible right now. They are constant reminders of her love for me and of her love for the Lord.

I brought some of my friends from New York City home to meet her. Just as my high school and college friends before them, they fell in love with her. They took my Grandmother to her favorite restaurant Picadilly and loved the fact that she would sing, "Who Let the Dogs Out." When we brought her home for lunch, she gathered all of my friends in her living room. And she witnessed to them. I distinctly remember her saying, "Now I know many of you don't know my Lord. But I can't have anybody come into my house without telling them that Jesus loves them. And I want all of you sweet children to know that Jesus loves you, he died for you, and he has a plan for you." I have never been more honored to call that beautiful lady my Grandmother in all of my life.

I settled back in Montgomery in my early 20's and had nearly a decade of being in the same town again as my Grandmother. Again, she was my best friend. We met for lunch every single week while I was working downtown. We ate at Martin's, Sahara, and Chick-fil-A. Those lunches were some of the best of my life. I told her everything from work troubles to issues in my dating life. She just listened. She never judged, she was slow to give advice.... she just listened. And she loved me. She took me out visiting shut-ins again and I got to know her circle of friends and I loved them like they were extra Grandmothers. That was such an incredibly special time in my life.

I loved living near her. She came to all of my plays at church, came over to my house to visit, and I would spend many evenings with her at her home. We would eat Chick-Fil-A and I would beg her for one of her famous back rubs. My 20's are filled with memories of my Grandmother. I think I called her nearly every single day. And all of my co-workers knew when I was rushing out the door at noon that I was running out to meet Grandmom for lunch.

After Grandmom had her stroke, I had the honor of spending many evenings with her in various hospital rooms. She would say, "Oh, has my butterfly landed at my bedside?" I would rub her hand, sing to her, and tell her that she was more than a Grandmother. She was my best friend. She would smile and say, "I know. And you're mine too."

Grandmother attended several of my wedding and baby showers and to this day people will comment on the bond she and I had. Since she has passed, I have had several friends tell me that they had met her at a shower or at a play and they could just see the love between us. I don't doubt that for one second. It was clear to anyone who spent 2 seconds with us that we had something special. I love her in a way that is different from how I have ever loved anyone else and I always felt that in return.

She was so excited when she found out that I was pregnant. By this time she had moved into an assisted living facility. I would visit her and she always wanted to feel the baby kick. She was at the hospital when my daughter was born and the first thing she did was hold the infant and sing, "Jesus Loves Me." Those were some of the earliest sounds my daughter ever heard. We moved to Kansas City just before Bennett turned 1, but that first year of her life was filled with days with my Grandmother- having lunch with her, talking to her, letting her watch Bennett crawl.... memories I will always cherish and be grateful for.

I remember telling my Grandmother that we were moving to Kansas. I put my head in her lap and began to cry. She just stroked my hair and said, "Well, angel baby, we are just going to have to leave that in God's hands. His ways are perfect and we are just going to have to trust in that." Beautiful words... but I saw that she was crying too.

My Grandmother was a saint. She really was. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone on this earth who had a closer relationship with the Lord. She truly walked with Him. She listened to Him. She was still and quiet in His presence. She was His hands and feet. She served. Always joyfully. Always. And she was content in ALL circumstances.

My precious Grandmother was content when she was healthy and she was content when she was sick. She never complained. I really don't think that in the 32 years I had with my Grandmother I ever heard her complain. It has been so interesting, but not really surprising, to hear stories from people who have told us how much she ministered to them even after she became ill. We have heard story after story from people who were touched by her refusal to complain and by her desire to give glory to God in all circumstances. My Grandmother was a testimony to her beloved Jesus right until the very end.

My lasting impression of her is that she was so incredibly loved. Everyone loved Polly Patterson. Everyone. And I think every member of my family could share in their own way about their unique and special relationship with her. I don't think you could find anyone who had an unkind word to say about her. How rare is that? She cared for the sick, prayed with those who needed prayer, loved those who needed to be loved, served those in their times of need, and obeyed God at every opportunity presented to her.

The peace I have now at her death is a true testament to her faith. She always longed for heaven and her death really is a celebration. I am so happy that she is home now. That she can dance pain free like she has longed to for so long. I know that when God said the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant" to her, truer words were never spoken.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful." 2 Timothy 4:7

So much to share...

2011-08-19T08:42:00.005-05:00

...but clearly I am not doing a very good job doing it. I think I am back to blog slacking. And when I use the word slacking I really mean, "chasing non stop after 2 little ones that are constantly in motion and never leave me alone for one second and I honestly can't even use the bathroom by myself because one of them is at the door needing something."

I digress. Anyhoo.... we have had a lot of fun things going on around here. I'll try to post this weekend about

-horse races
-new potty charts for Will
-behavior charts for both kids
-new dance classes
-a new cat (which is really my 2 year old who is now called Hooper the cat)
-new fun recipes
-an extremely cool birthday gift

But until then I will post a few pics of our recent trip to ride the Belton railroad. We discovered that if you go on certain nights during the summer, you not only get a train ride, but also a fun dinner as well. The Websters were all over that. Food and a train ride? Pretty awesome in our book.

Here are the little ones in front of the train. This is our perspective shot. Pretty crazy, huh?
What? She's smiling! Hurry take a picture before this moment is gone.

I love any type of old fashioned soda counters. I would love to travel the country and take pictures of old ones if I could. This one was closed sadly, but I want to go back when it's open. Just because. I am at the bottom of this pic with the kids. Wave to the specks!

Rob took a picture of this car for me. It was my favorite. I wonder why?

Love love love these old men just shooting the breeze on a cool evening. I want to be like them when I grow up. But still a female. 'Cause that would be kind of awkward.

And here I am shooting the breeze with my two little conductors.

Isn't this a great old train ticket? I was expecting a cheap little stub that you can buy at Party City, but instead we got this awesome vintage looking one. I am going to put it in Will's scrapbook. Too cool to throw away.

Very Polar Express ish if you ask me. But he doesn't look like Tom Hanks. And it's not Christmas. Just work with me here, people.

Will heard the train whistle. He was amazed.

So was his big sister.

The food arrives. Time to chow down as we enjoy the beautiful farmland scenery.

Rob with the kiddos.

I don't know. I just don't know. I may have been contemplating jumping here.

Here is the lone sane member of The Red Webs. Acting normally in contrast to his family.

Enjoying a beautiful evening on the train.

Ride's over. Let's do it again next week!

But before we go..... one trip up to check out the engineer's digs. I would not have been surprised at all if the train had started moving down the tracks. I wouldn't put it past these two.

These are our fun family photos, but if you want to check out some really cool HDR photos of the train, check out my talented hubby's blog. He goes for the artistic shots. I, clearly, do not.

TMI

2011-08-10T22:25:00.002-05:00

So, I know this isn't big news to most of you out there and it may cross that line of oversharing, but......

Will went to the potty FOUR times today AND he pooped in the potty. I know, I know.... tmi. But we are very excited.

I started asking him when he turned 2 if he wanted to go potty and he always said, "No. Bennett go potty. Will have diaper." I didn't push it, but he always tells me when his diaper is wet and wants me to change him right away. So, I asked him again today if he wanted to go potty and he said that he did. And he actually did it! Then again. Then again.

We called family members and he was so proud to tell them. And then after church tonight he went again and actually pooped in the potty.

As Bennett told her nursery workers tonight, "It's a great day in the Webster house." Indeed.

A weekend of big firsts!

2011-08-08T13:08:00.014-05:00

This past weekend was a gigantic, monstrous, life changing weekend filled with huge firsts for all involved. Well, not really, but it sounds really cool, doesn't it?

We started the weekend off with Bennett's first dance recital. Okay, so it wasn't really a recital. Parents were just invited into her classroom for the last class, but that was kind of a first, right? I would love to tell you that Bennett was a prima ballerina, but she was totally distracted the whole time. She just kept waving to us and yelling out, "Hey, Will!" She was THRILLED that Will was there and she made her whole class say hello to him. I wish she were that happy to see him at home.

And someone was so so proud of his big sister after the performance was over. This picture absolutely kills me.

We took the kids to Sweet Caroline's afterwards to celebrate. That is our favorite candy store in KC and fortunately it is right by our house. The kids got to have small bags in honor of our little ballerina.

That night we went out to get Will's first haircut!! Sniff... sniff.... The woman working there told me that she had been there 5 years and in that time she only had one Mom cry. I was determined not to be the second. But I was close. Too close.

Our before shot of Mr. Shaggy Mc. Shag Shag.

Will was pretty excited until they put the smock on him. Then he had a melt down.

But it wasn't anything a lollipop couldn't cure. They keep stacks of them at the salon for good reason.

And voila! Here's my little baby who looks so much more like a big boy now. I may be smiling in the back of this picture, but I am crying on the inside. Yes, I am that Mom. And yes, every single milestone will be like this. Get used to it.

Later that night, Rob and Bennett went downtown to First Fridays in Kansas City. Will crashed (probably from all of the sugar) but I thought it was keeping true to the first theme I have going on here. Bennett had a great time and I had fun staying home paying bills. Yay!

The next morning we took Will to see his first movie, Winnie the Pooh! This was Bennett's 6th movie, but the first one for our little guy.

Here he is walking to the theatre. Could he be any cuter?

Literally running with excitement in to see the movie.

Waiting for the movie to begin.

This is such a typical Will face. If you have spent any time with him at all you will know that this is a face he wears constantly. A little worried about life, I suppose. But still cute.

A happy pose afterwards. Two thumbs up for Winnie the Pooh. Will only lasted for a bout half of the movie, but Bennett loved it. And that is why she sees a whole lot more than he does.

My name is Will and I have officially conquered my first movie!

And finally, we ended our weekend of first by attending a first birthday celebration for our little buddy, Crosby. And he in turn clearly loved his first taste of cake.

I hope you all had a blessed weekend with your loved ones as well. Off to read stories to the budding ballerina and the short haircut boy. Maybe we can all make it to bed without any fighting. Now that certainly would be a first.

Best Birthday Present Ever

2011-08-03T09:31:00.002-05:00

Last night we were going to have leftover chicken and rice casserole. I know, I know.... boring, boring, boring. But hey, at least I wasn't cooking chili or some other ridiculous winter meal when it was 110 degrees outside.

***Side note. That's not an exaggeration. It really was 110 degrees yesterday. 115 with the heat index. you may commence the pity for us all now. ****

But anyway, I decided at the last minute that I didn't want boring left overs. Today is my birthday and I wanted to start celebrating early. Money was no option. So we threw caution to the wind and headed over to a cheap Mexican restaurant where we could get tacos for 99 cents each. We Websters know how to live it up, folks.

I digress. The reason I am writing this post is to share with you all that while eating our cheap tacos, I received the best birthday present ever. The best, I say! A man got up from his table, pushed his chair back, walked over to our table, and actually said these words, "I just wanted to let you all know that you have the best behaved children I have ever seen."

WHAT?????? I almost choked on my crunchy hard shell taco. Rob and I both looked around in disbelief. Surely he wasn't talking to us. But all I saw behind us was a screaming baby and a 5 year old throwing chips at his Mom. Maybe he was talking to us. Could it be? And then I looked down at my sweet daughter silently working on writing her name on the children's placemat and my son who was diligently and quietly eating his chips and salsa.

That kind man caught us in a very rare moment. And that was all it took for him to declare my children the best children ever in the history of all children. Well, he didn't quite say that, but I knew that is what he meant.

We thanked him and then Rob and I just stared at each other. It was the best. birthday. present. ever.

After the man payed his bill and left Will threw his salsa all over the table, screamed to be let out of his booster seat, and refused to let us help him with his cup which he spilled all over me. Bennett got mad at Will and yelled at him all while refusing to stay in her chair.

But that's okay. I already had my present.

Only at my house....

2011-08-01T17:29:00.003-05:00

..... would you find a complete idiot (that would be me) deciding to cook huge meals that require frying pans and pots of boiling water on the hottest nights of the year. And only I would do it 3 nights in a row. Tomorrow night we are eating yogurt for dinner.

And only at my house would you find a husband scrubbing oil paint off his wife with olive oil and salt because that's what google told him to do. Most women would realize that they shouldn't paint furniture with oil paint anyway unless they are accustomed to doing so. And most women wouldn't panic when soap and water wouldn't take off the paint she had all over her arms and legs. And most husbands wouldn't turn to the computer and decide that olive oil and salt were the best ways to remove said paint. And most husbands probably wouldn't decide that they should do it and proceed to scrub wife's hands until they were raw with salt.

But things like that happen at our house nearly every day.

I'm off to remove the pork chops from the scalding oil and wonder for the umpteenth time why I cook winter meals in the middle of the summer. I don't know.

Home

2011-07-31T15:57:00.002-05:00

We're home. We officially survived

A 19 hour car ride to Virginia
A 12 hour car ride to Alabama
A 14 hour car ride back to Kansas

None of these hours included stopping.

4 diaper blow outs
3 nights in different hotels
2 weeks of surviving without Daddy
1 escape attempt by our golden lab somewhere in Kentucky.

We've actually been home for a week. But I think I may just be getting over the shell shock enough to actually write about it.

On to new adventures.

Bennett's dream come true, butterbeer, a wedding, and other odds and ends

2011-07-20T22:08:00.012-05:00

My sister has ruined me for life. I will never ever be able to bribe my child by telling her that I will give her a surprise if she's good. I can never do it again. Wanna know why? Because my sister told Bennett she had a surprise for her and then took her to a HORSE FARM! Are you serious? I'm done. This was Bennett's reaction.

Can you say Priceless?

Oh my word. She was in heaven. And she keeps telling me that this was the best surprise ever. I can never top it. Now my lame trip to the yogurt shop will pale in comparison because it's not a HORSE FARM! Thanks, Aunt Lisa. But I was thrilled that she and Will had a blast riding horses with their cousins. So fun.

My sister and I also took the kids to the McWayne Center in Birmingham. Bennett keeps calling it the Lightening McQueen Center. Whatever works. We had a blast watching the kids run and explore.

In the evenings we were all pretty worn out. And sometimes you just need to cuddle with your big cousin and thank her for letting you ride a horse with her.

I took my oldest niece to see Harry Potter. My Dad and I waited in line together on opening night of the very first Harry Potter movie and so it was fun to come full circle and wait in line again with Piper for the final movie. Before we went we all had to have a large glass of butterbeer along with some cauldron cakes that we baked.

And finally, my little brother got married. Well, I guess he is of legal age to be wed, but I still think he's 14 years old. And he's not really my brother. But I consider him to be like one. Taylor Hall is the most amazing guy you will ever meet and it was an honor and a privilege to watch him marry the love of his life, the beautiful Bianca. Here are a few shots of the handsome groom, his lovely bride, and my dear friends John Schmidt and Corey Maze.

Well, our three week odyssey is coming to an end. We head back to good 'old Kansas City in just a few days. During our time left in Alabama I plan to swim a lot, hug my nieces as much as possible, eat lots of boiled peanuts, and stare longingly at all of the crepe myrtles. I miss the south. I just do.

And I will miss these three so very much. Just like I do every time I have to say good-bye. Sigh.....

Coming together

2011-07-19T08:02:00.013-05:00

Here are a few pictures from my Mother's side of the family coming together for my Grandmother's funeral. My Grandmother had two children (my Mom and her brother, my Uncle Ed) and then each of them had 2 daughters. The 4 Granddaughters were extremely close growing up and we still are.

I am so thankful to have grown up with cousins that I adored. We went to the same schools, only lived a few miles apart, and spent so much time together. It was so wonderful to be reunited with them, their husbands, and their children. My Grandmother would have loved every second of it.

The night we got in from Virginia, we celebrated three birthdays. Will, my Dad, and my niece Piper are all born within days of each other.
Make a wish!

Cake all around!

Will was happy that this birthday thing kept on coming.

Piper got a quill and ink set from Harry Potter. Early prep for our big outing to the final movie.

I love mornings like these. Snuggling on the couch watching cartoons. I love every single one of these kids so much.

Hanging out in the pool.

Emmie and Uncle Rob

Popsicles all around

Even the big kids got one too!

Me and my "twin" cousin, Erin. We are only 5 months apart and grew up more like sisters than cousins.

Adorable Elijah Brooks. Could he be any cuter?

My Grandmother would have LOVED this picture. I can't tell you all the memories me and my cousins have her in pool. They are countless. Nothing in the world would have made Grandmom happier than seeing all of her angel babies playing in the pool with their husbands and children. It was so fitting to all get together and do this the day before her visitation.

We had my Grandmother's funeral on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I was amazed at how many people came to pay their respects. It was honestly like watching my childhood walk in through the door. I saw people I hadn't seen in a decade. Friends that my amazing Grandmother had ministered with, visited in the hospital, prayed over, and shared her life with. It was a beautiful day of rejoicing and celebrating her life. Afterwards we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's to spend some quiet time with our family.

Me with my cousin, Elliot.

I love this picture of Bennett and Elijah Brooks sitting at the kids table because me and his Mommy sat at the kids table at every single family gathering. I think we were still sitting there when we were 14.

A rose between two thorns.

Playing in the backyard.

Bradford and Bennett

The 4 Grandaughters.

My Mom, Dad, Uncle Ed, and Aunt Beverly.

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

Wirt's Wharf 2011

2011-07-16T07:52:00.024-05:00

We spent the 4th of July week at my brother and sister-in-law's house on the Potomac river. They have a beautiful home on the banks of the river located just south of Washington DC. They are so gracious every year to open up their home to the whole family. We are so grateful for their hospitality and are already gearing up for next summer.

Their home is called Wirt's Wharf. I honestly can't remember why. Maybe one of them can chime in and tell me why again. All I know is that my fabulous sister-in-law gave us all T-Shirts with the name of the home printed on them, so there you go.

Anyway, we had a wonderful week of swimming, boating, fishing, resting, playing games, and just catching up with family members. I adore every single one of them and miss them already.

We had been on the road 6 hours with 2 cranky children and a skittish dog when I saw this sign. Oh, Lord. We had a long way to go!

Scenic stop in Virginia. Couldn't resist the view.

We're here! Let the good times commence.

Just show me which way to the water, please.

Found the water! This vacation rocks!

We're with Frank Webster! If you have to ask, then you just don't know. Bennett looks thrilled to be with Frank Webster.

Daddy and daughter

We loved going out in the kayaks and just enjoying the water and fresh air.

Fun shot of me with my little passenger

And if you go anywhere with Rob Webster, this is what he will always look like. Always.

It's a great day for a boat ride. Will's ready!

Bennett and Sophie are ready!

And the dogs are devastated to be left behind yet again.

Beautiful day

Our fearless captain Hazen with his skipper, Max. Max is pretty much the coolest kid you will ever meet.

Hmmmm...... I retract my last sentence.

Aunt Laura warned me that kids usually fall asleep on the boat. The combination of sun and waves have a tendency to do that. I wasn't quite prepared for my kids to fall into a coma. I was checking pulses by the end of the trip.

Grandaddy and Mamaw entertained everyone with craft projects.....

.......And new card games......

.....while Rob and Frank entertained the rest of us with their mad music skills.

6 Webster/Marshall cousins. Bennett, Max, Will, Sophie, Madeline, and Jameson.

Mamaw and Grandaddy with all of their grandchildren. Will was loving being in this picture.

Until Mommy started walking away. And this was his reaction. Typical.

And then Bennett wanted her bouncy ball in the picture. Very typical.

We took it away and so then she pouted and refused to take any more pictures. Extremely typical.

She decided she would be in the large group shot, but she was not happy about it.

And she hadn't gotten over her anger by the time we took our family unit shot.

Oh, well. At least I have one happy child.

And my sweet daughter is back. She has decided that being in a picture isn't so bad. Kind of.

Sparklers aren't quite as fun when you're 3. Then thy are just scary sticks of fire.

Happy Birthday, America. Now stop hurting my ears.

Everyone went to pick blackberries one morning. I couldn't go. I took a very sick Will who was running a fever of 103.5 to the doctor. But I wish I could have gone because these pictures makes it look like everyone had a blast.

Could she be any more beautiful?

And this is what happens when Mommy doesn't come along on the trip. My husband was so busy taking pictures that he didn't notice that his daughter's dress was falling off. Lovely.

Come on. You know you want one.

Aunt Stacy with Sophie.

Sibling Love

Ahhh...... the hammock by the water. Perfection.

We loved fishing with the family in the evenings. This was Will's first time and he wasn't quite sure what to make of everything.

Hazen kept telling everyone that they had to kiss the first fish that they caught. Sophie was a sucker.

I was not. This was as close as I would get.

Hazen clearly did not share my same concerns.

Grandaddy explaining the ins and outs of fishing to Will. Or just telling him to look at the camera. I'm not sure which one.

My family on the banks of the river. Although that's not my dog. Just pretend.

I love this picture of Uncle Frank fishing with Jamison. That's not their dog either.

The next morning we got some alone time to fish. Much better.

Absolutely beautiful.

See you next summer, family!

Setting Sun

2011-07-15T07:34:00.005-05:00

This picture was taken on the very last night of our trip in Virginia. My brother in law, Hazen, took us on a sunset boat ride down the Potomac. Everyone was laughing and taking pictures and I leaned back in the boat and stared at the sunset. I knew my grandmother was dying. I thought at this point that I would see her again. I watched the beautiful sun setting in the sky and thought about her life. At one point she had been the brightest and most beautiful sun in the sky. When she was in the middle of the sky, her light shone as bright as anyone I had ever known. And as I watched the sun set, I began to cry, and I thanked God for her life. I was so grateful to have had such an incredible woman of faith shape and mold me. I craned my neck and watched the sun as it disappeared behind the horizon. I tried to watch it as long as I could and tears ran down my face when it was no longer visible. My Grandmother passed away 12 hours later.

I love that Rob got a picture of this sunset. It will always remind me of that night. And of the light that burned so bright in my life for the longest time and is now in a glorified state in the arms of her Savior.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog.....

2011-07-12T08:24:00.003-05:00

..... to update you on the past few weeks of our lives. Oh, y'all. What a crazy month we have had.

I am going to try to sum up this past week and a half as briefly as I can.

Rob and I left for our 19 hour road trip to Virginia on a Friday. We made it 10 hours and stopped for the night. They next morning, we were 2 hours in when my Mother called with some devastating news. My beloved Grandmother (who I am very very close to) had a stroke in the middle of the night at her assisted living facility which was in Montgomery, Alabama.

Hospice had evaluated her and given her 2 weeks to live. Rob and I had an extremely difficult choice. By this time, we were only a few hours away from Virginia. We were going to vacation with his side of the family and we only see them once a year. Also, his father has Alzheimer's, but he still is very lucid. We don't know where he will be health wise a year from now and so it was so important that we see him as well as the rest of the family.

We pulled the car over and I sobbed and tried to decide what to do. We decided to go on to Virginia thinking we would cut our vacation short so we could see everyone in Virginia and make it in time to see my Grandmother before she passed away.

I was calling Alabama morning and night getting updates on my precious Grandmother. I was ready to hop on a plane in an instant if need be. But everyone assured me that she was hanging in there. That I would make it on time. Even the night before her death, I was told that she had another week.

But we didn't make it. Will got sick in Virginia which made it difficult to leave when I had planned and since Grandmother seemed to be stable, we decided to leave on Thursday. We had been on the road an hour when she passed away.

I can't write about that now. I'll have to write about that later. I don't have the words right now. I will say though that I have no doubt about where she is right now. In fact my very first thought when I heard the news was, "Good for her." I know that she is celebrating right this instant with the very God that she spent her entire life loving and serving.

But after a 19 hour road trip, a very sick little boy, and a crazy week of emotions, we drove 12 hours down to Alabama to say good-bye to my Grandmother.

This past weekend was a whirlwind. Family, cousins, visitations, emotions, sadness, and celebration.

On top of everything, I had a surprise 40th birthday party planned for Rob for months. We pushed back the time, scaled it back to just dessert, but kept it on. It was theraputic. But hard.

And now, my husband is in Malawi, Africa for 2 weeks. I took him to Atlanta the day after the funeral and am driving today to Birmingham to spend time at my sisters house.

I am exhausted. I am sad. I am on auto pilot. I don't know what I am anymore.

But, I am happy to be with my family in Alabama and I rejoice in the fact that I will be with my Grandmother again one day. And I am so grateful for the 32 years I had with her. That is a gift I will always be grateful for.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Will

2011-06-30T23:25:00.002-05:00

I don't know what to say about Will. I don't think God could have blessed us with a sweeter child. He is the gentlest, kindest, and most sensitive little thing that I have ever seen. It was quite a shock when we found out he was coming, my pregnancy with him was very challenging, life was chaotic when he was born, and yet I cannot imagine my life without him. I wouldn't give up one second of these past two years with him for anything in the world and I am so humbled and so grateful to God for this most perfect gift that He has given our family.

He has changed so much even in these past few months. His talking is kind of blowing me away. He can sort of have a conversation with me now. It is quite odd. I keep expecting him to be a baby and then he does these grown up 2 year old things that catch me off guard. He loves to dance, play music, play with his trains, kick his soccer ball, play in the pool, and have puppet shows.

He is devastated if he thinks you are mad at him and will throw himself on you and say, "I so sowweeee, Mommy!!!" His favorite books are The Big Hungry Bear, Jamberry, and Goodnight Moon. His favorite songs are "Oh God, You are My God" and "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. Yes. You heard me right.

He drinks more orange juice than any other kid I have ever known. His favorite cartoon is Cailou and he has to sleep with his monkey, his puppy, and three pacis. He loves to pray before bedtime and can't sleep unless you tuck him in, "Snug as a bug in a rug."

He loves bowtie pasta and blueberries. His favorite game is hide and seek, but he doesn't like you to jump out at him. He will always say. "Don't scare me, Mommy. Dat not nice." He adores his big sister and his world revolves around her. When she is in a good mood, he is the happiest little guy in the world. But when she is in a bad mood, it sends him over the edge.

He could play with his play dough all day if you would let him. He would rather be outside than anywhere else. He splashes too much in the bathtub. He likes his puppy pajamas the best. His favorite sippy cup is his green one.

He loves to give hugs and kisses.

He is my heart and Bennett is my soul.

Happy Birthday, little one. I hope you know every single day of your life that you are so loved.

Road Warriors and Parade Marchers

2011-06-30T15:51:00.006-05:00

Here we go again.....

We are about to leave on a cross country trek. We are going to load up the Crimson Express and drive 18 hours to Colonial Beach, VA to spend the 4th with family. We will spend a week there and then drive 13 hours down to Alabama. I am going to hang out there with the kids while Rob flies to Africa for two weeks, and then we will drive 14 hours back to Kansas.

A total of 45 hours. Two toddlers. One Golden Lab. And lots of Advil.

And before you even think about robbing our house, we have someone painting while we are gone, our best friends staying here while their son is in a baseball tournament, and lots of neighbors watching. So, go ahead. Try to steal our 24 inch Panasonic television. It won't happen, you would be burglars.

Everyone asks me, "WHY????" Why not fly?" It's simple. We like it. We save a lot of money believe it or not, we like being together as a family, we can bring as much as we want and not worry about keeping it small for the plane, the only people we annoy are each other and not other passengers, we can bring our dog with us, etc.... It's the only way to travel.

One cool thing that has resulted from all of our driving is that my kids have been to a whole lot of states. Granted, most have been just driving through, but I think we have eaten or used the bathroom in all of them. That's how we roll. So far they have been to-

Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Plus Bennett has been to Louisiana and Texas courtesy of her visit to see her Aunt and Uncle when she was 6 months old.

And my kids will pass through North and South Carolina in a few weeks on their way to Alabama, so add two more to the list.

16 for Will and 18 for Bennett. Not bad for a 2 and 3 year old.

So, here we go again. We finally caved on our last road trip to West Virginia and let them watch movies on a DVD player. Sigh.... we made it as long as we could. But they are only for road trips. And we do try to limit them even then. But I will say, it has made our trips a whole lot smoother. Societal peer pressure wins again!

Oh, and one final note about our trip. It will take us two days to get to the beach. Do you know what those two days happen to be? My son's birthday and my wedding anniversary. :-( That stinks. Majorly.

Anyhoo, moving on. My kids were in a parade today! Kind of. A little parade with their fellow Adventure Camp campers. I wore my red, white, and blue and cheered along the parade route. This is what I saw.

The parade begins!

And here come my two adorable redheads riding in the bye bye buggy!

Bennett looks so happy to be in the parade! Look closely at Will. He has spotted me and my Mama's Boy is about to have a full blown melt down.

Can you all see Will turning around trying to find me? Look at that sweet little face peeping around the corner. He kills me. He just does.

Bennett has now decided to get out and walk and Will has had a double whammy. He can't get out to hug his Mommy and his sister has abandoned him. It becomes too much.

He's done. Full blown melt down. The saddest little parade marcher on the route.

He sees me. It's over.

But, wait! Is that a lollipop? It's all good now. Happy days are here again. Mommy who?

And of course Bennett was happy as a lark. She loved the attention and all of the pomp and circumstance. She was thrilled and has talked all afternoon about being in a parade. Love that girl.

Okay, off to pack. Lots to do. Crazy crazy few weeks ahead of us. But here is one final picture of Will that I had to share. Here he is the day after his party enjoying his new Thomas pajamas and his new train set. This is about as good as it gets for Will Webster.

Will's 2nd Birthday DIY Choo Choo Extravaganza

2011-06-28T16:09:00.028-05:00

Okay, let's face it. Birthday parties are expensive. Too expensive. Especially when you just want to have a special day celebrating your child. So, Rob and I set a very tight budget for Will's birthday and almost made a game of how much we could do within that budget. We ended up going a little bit over, but we still had an awesome celebration for our little Will for a very reasonable price.

I downloaded a DIY party kit from a shop on Etsy. They send you everything you need in a PDF file. Granted, it was a lot of work cutting everything out, but the whole kit was $15. So, we spent $15 on all of the decorations except for the balloon wreaths which I made for only $3 each. I usually go all out on food, but we cut way back and only did hot dogs and sandwiches. I made the cake myself and I served food that I was able to get on sale with coupons.

I had planned on doing a watermelon bowl, but watermelons were expensive and raspberries were on sale. I had a lot of coupons for dip-n-dot ice cream, so we went with that instead of the regular ice cream that we normally use for parties. I typically fill coolers with canned soda, but I got 2 liters for 99 cents each, and so on and so forth. That kind of adjusting and not quite doing what I would have liked to do, but going with sale items saved us a lot of money.

Rob and I also made a train for Will out of cardboard. We downloaded plans, grabbed some old boxes, and voila! The kids loved it and we just spent some money on cheap paint samples from the paint store. Again, it took a lot of time, but I would rather spend time than money any day.

And the best part? Doing something special for our William. I would do anything in the world for him, so just having close friends over to share in how much he means to us means more than anything.

I sent out these invitations a few weeks ago. They came in the PDF file that I downloaded. I printed them out and cut them and there you go. Same with the envelopes. I had never cut my own envelopes, but there's a first time for everything.

And a little extra on the back glues on with my glue gun. Very very homemade. Maybe a little to much. :-) But fun nonetheless.

I always have to set up a little area honoring the birthday boy or girl. I have Will's ridiculously up to date scrapbook there. Seriously. It is complete through May 2011. I may have a touch of OCD when it comes to scrapbooks. And in the middle is the video we do each year for the birthday boy/girl. I glue CD sleeves to the backs of their scrapbooks each year and then put their videos in the sleeves.

A birthday banner I printed out and then strung with some ribbon I had in my craft box.

When I scrapbook I always have tons of leftover pictures that I never use, so I recycled them into this cute little 2 to hang on our wall.

Tags for all of the cups. I think they were better in theory than practicality, but it was a cute idea.

Couldn't resist.

The perfectionist in me doesn't see the cuteness in the picture. All I can see is that some napkins weren't turned the right way. Grrr.... But still, chew chew? Come on! Too cute.

Sandwiches for the little tykes using the train cutter I use at home to make Will's Sandwiches.

My train cake. It looked a little better in my head than it did on the platter, but I had fun making it. I used angel food cake and pound cake as the train cars because I thought they would frost easier. It honestly didn't taste as good as regular cake, but I wanted to avoid crumbs.

A balloon wreath hanging on an inside door in our kitchen.

And another one on the front door welcoming guests.

Rob made the train tracks to invite guests into the house.

And finally, the best part. The train Rob and I made out of cardboard for Will. He LOVED it!! Rob and I had a blast pulling it out of the garage a night when the kids were in bed. It took us a week to make it and paint it, but it was such a fun project to work on.

And here's the birthday boy himself enjoying his new digs. I wish I had a video camera on when he first saw it. His gasp of delight was worth every second we spent on it.

A better shot of the train with all of the cars as the birthday guests started to arrive. Please pardon the dead grass. Sigh.... my husband and I may be creative, but please don't call on us to work in your yard. You will be very disappointed.

Side note. I really love that Will has different friends than Bennett. Of course she knew everyone there and adored them, but I kept the party small and only invited specific friends and adults that Will loved. Some were his best friends (Rachel, Levi, Ridley, Brooke, etc....) and some were adults that he talks about and wants to see (Mrs. Shelby, Aunt Mary, Uncle Terry, etc....) It was awesome having friends here that truly love my little boy and that he loves in return.

Bennett was so happy to see the party guests as well.

Here is sweet little Rachel checking out the digs. Will loves his best buddy and her Mom, Mrs. Krista. He wants to go see them all the time.

This isn't Will. This is Ainsley. Just in case you were confused.

Fisher and Carter checking out the digs. They are unsure of their findings.

Our attempt to get all of the kids in the train did not work so well. So, here are some of them clearly looking happy at the thought of a group shot.

Of course Bennett and Levi found each other right away and attempted to ride off into the sunset in the Webster express.

Brooke enjoying the ball pit we set up for the little ones.

Can someone please tell Crosby to stop growing up? I cannot talk about how much older he looks in the picture. I love this shot of him and his beautiful Mommy.

Daddy with the birthday boy.

Dinner time! Thank you Levi for being the only one to actually smile for the camera.

Time for gifts. Will wasn't too sure about opening his presents, but fortunately he had a lot of little helpers.

This is looking promising....

.....but opening gifts is a lot of hard work. I'm pooped.

Cake time!! The kids were just a teensy bit excited. I really need to post the video of them jumping up and down and screaming for cake!

My parents joined us from Alabama on Skype so they could be a part of the festivities. Sniff.... snifff... It's hard being so far away from home.

Levi says, "Enough with the skyping business. Let's eat cake!"

Will got extremely shy when we were singing to him. Bennett though this was hysterical. I don't think she's ever had a shy day in her life.

This train cake was a hit with the kids. Again, the texture and type of cake I chose to make didn't work the best, but the kids loved choosing which train car they wanted. Definitely a blast.

Love these friends who are my family in Kansas.

Here is "Aunt Mary" and "Uncle Terry" with the birthday boy. They truly are our family here in Kansas and I really don't know what we would have done the past few years without them. My children adore them and think of them as their family members.
We were shocked that Will let Terry feed him. He stopped letting us feed him at 12 months. Seriously. So Terry kind of rocked here.

Enjoying cake and ice cream on the back porch.

What??? Is Levi in the train car with another woman? What is this? Bennett may need to step up her game.

But can you blame him? Look at beautiful Ridley. She's a sweet one, that's for sure.

My daughter dragged her horses outside, of course, and insisted they take train rides. Here's Will taking a break from a long evening by petting Beauty.

Me and my girls. Love you ladies!

Rob with our dear friend, Terry Haines.

As the party was winding down, even the babies were getting in the action. Walker decided he needed a ride on the Webster Express.

I posted this picture on here for two reasons. 1- Levi is STILL in the train car with Ridley. Bennett should be getting nervous. 2- The horse looks like he wants to kill someone.

Final jumps on our brand new bounce house. Thank you Craig's List.

And final swings on the hammock for Caleb and Fisher.

Train whistles to thank everyone for coming to the party.

And final hugs from Mommy.

And kisses.

What a wonderful evening. A very fun party that was done on a very tight budget using coupons, sale ads, my own craft supplies, and a lot of time. But we had a blast doing it.

I have to end by saying that when we moved here, I was 3 months pregnant with Will. I had only met a few people by the time he was born and it was a time that was very transitional and a little lonely. So it meant so much to have a home filled with people who loved my little boy and who wanted to be here to celebrate him. I teared up watching him play with his friends and hug the adults who love him. There isn't a better feeling in the world.

Summer Fun

2011-06-26T21:53:00.009-05:00

So, I have think I may have blogged more in one month previously than I have this entire year, but hold on to your hats folks. Here comes TWO blog posts in one day. Try to contain your excitement.

I have been so behind this year and haven't posted pictures of so much- Our trip to West Virginia, a weekend with The Segars, outings, trips, birthday parties, etc....

But tonight I am going to remedy that a little bit. Here is a little bit of what we have been up to lately.

The kids have loved going to Adventure Camp at our church. Bennett even went on her first field trip to TCBY. She was thrilled! I usually send them on separate days which is insane of me because it means I never have alone time, but that also means I get one on one time with each of my kids. When Bennett goes to camp, Will and I go to the playground or go to Jumpin' Jax so he can play on the inflatables. That boy is an amazing climber! He can already do the huge inflatables all by himself. I have got to sign him up for gymnastics.

When Will is in camp, Bennett and I go to movies or we just have a special day where we get milkshakes and play dress up together. She and I saw "Beezus and Ramona" and "The Tale of Desperaux." I just love walking into a movie theatre with my little pigtailed sidekick holding her hand. Just the two of us. I love it.

Will is turning 2 next week. I can't talk about it. We will also embark on a crazy cross country road trip. More on that later. But here are some pictures of a few of the fun things we have been up to lately.

We went blueberry picking with our friends, the Lewis', a few weeks ago. Good times. Great friends. And yummy blueberries.

Scouting out the best spots.

Sometimes blueberry buckets can be a little heavy.

Growing up too fast.

All the kids rode this little train afterwards. BIG mistake. Will came back shaking and crying. All I have heard for two weeks now is, "Dat bumpy train scared me. I so scared of dat bumpy train."

Can I just say that I love the relationship that is forming between these two? Having them 16 months apart has not always been the easiest thing in the world, but the love and friendship that they share has been worth every single tough moment.

We also got to go to the birthday party of our sweet friend, Miss Brynn. She's the cutest 4 year old that I know.

Amazing shot I took of these two at the party. Definitely a framer.

Will saying good-bye to Brynn and thank her for letting him come. Even though he was a boy.

We were honored to be invited to the baptism of Crosby Pullins. He is the younger brother of Bennett's best friend, Levi and the son of our dear friends, Jessie and Jerry. What a wonderful and blessed evening.

So grateful to God for all of his blessings and so thankful to be a part of this precious baby's life.

After the baptism we went back to the Pullins' house where Will had fun kicking a ball.

And then promptly lost it.

In the midst of all of the festivities, Will got an ear infection which caused many tears. Bennett decided that if he was going to cry then she was too. Here I am being extremely sympathetic.

Bennett was so excited to go to the birthday party of her sweet friend, Sadie. Here is Bennett with Sadie and her cousin Amelia. The cute little birthday girl wasn't as excited to be in the picture as the other two. Bennett and Amelia went to school together last year and so they were so happy to see each other. Bennett has really missed her this summer.

Sadie was a lot happier when it was time for cake. She is a girl after all. She knows what's up.

My awesome BBM friends!

I snapped this great shot of Bennett as we were leaving. She is so stinkin' cute!!!

And finally, my kids learned to play croquet at a backyard BBQ some friends from church threw. They are naturals, I say!

A beautiful summer evening with friends.

I hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying your summer!! Now I am going to go and hang up decorations for my son's...sniff sniff....second.... sniff sniff.... birthday party.

Potty Humor

2011-06-26T07:22:00.003-05:00

This blog post is for the many of you out there who have ever taken your children to a public restroom. Once the potty training begins, any chance of you ever leaving a public restroom without being completely embarrassed vanishes.

I have known this for awhile, but now that Will is talking more, he has doubled my humiliation and therefore prompted this blog post.

The following are all phrases that have been uttered by my children while in public. I hope the public forgives me.

1. Great Job, Mom!! You went pee pee. I'm so proud of you!

2. Mom, you can do it. Just relax!

3. Mommy, is Will going to poo poo in the bathtub again?

4. WHY ARE YOU SHUSHING ME?

5. Mommy, are you going potty AGAIN? YOU JUST WENT!

6. Come on, Mommy!! If you go potty like a big girl, I'll give you a sticker! You did it!! Way to go, Mommy!

7. Why is my pee pee yellow?

Sigh..... Keep in mind that since my kids are so close in age, most of the phrases were said (or yelled) while I was trying to keep Will from crawling out of the bottom of the door, so I am balancing her on the potty, struggling with Will on one knee, or trying to go myself with two little faces staring at me. This is when I silently bemoan my life under my breath. Not really. But sort of.

Shout out to the Dads!

2011-06-19T08:23:00.008-05:00

I can't help but think of the men who have made a difference in my life on this Father's Day.

I am thinking of my grandfather.

I remember a loving and kind man who always had time for me. I remember him throwing coins in the pool and then seeing which of me and my cousins could race to the bottom and get them first. I remember hiding behind his chair and "surprising" him. He always acted surprised even though he always knew I was there. I remember playing ping pong, going to Hardees with his friends to eat biscuits, eating ice cream on his back porch, and all of the hugs. He loved to let me crawl in his lap and just hug him.

From my grandfather I learned what it was like to feel loved and secure.

I could write 10 blog posts about how much my father means to me. My problem here will be trying to condense how much I love him into a few concise paragraphs. My Dad was my best friend growing up. He still is. My Dad was my playmate. I remember walking my dog to the end of our subdivision every day and waiting for his car to pull in after a long day at work. As soon as I saw that Mazda I would race him back to the house.

When we got home he would always come out in the driveway and play basketball with me. I can't emphasize enough how much that still stays with me. I hope every Dad know how important it is to play with their children. My Dad loved to surprise me. I was always finding books, games, or dolls on my pillow. For no reason.

As I grew older he never missed one show I ever had. In fact, he was usually at every performance. I would skip hanging out with my friends on weekends just to go to the movies with my Dad. We went on trips together and loved exploring the DC suburbs together. A good weekend for me was going to a civil war battlefield with my Dad or just going out to get ice cream and a new book.

I spent a summer interning at the Pentagon and so I got to ride into work every day with my Dad, have lunch with my Dad in the courtyard, and then ride home. Some days we would stay in DC after work to catch a movie or explore the town a bit. It really was just like hanging out with my friend.

I performed in many theatres all over the country after graduation from college, and my Dad would fly in to see nearly every show. I loved exploring each of the towns with him and picking out our favorite spots. We loved spending time in NYC together. I tried to surprise him by taking him to see his favorite shows and it was a real treat when we lived in Alabama together and were able to perform together for the first time in plays and dramas.

To this day my Dad remains someone I can call at anytime and he has passed his love of surprises on to my children. I would still rather travel or hang out with him more than anyone I know.

From my Dad I learned what it means to be supported, encouraged, and loved unconditionally. He also taught me the importance of your parent being your ally and your friend.

My Father-in-law is Ward Cleaver. Or so I've been told. I have known Rob for nearly a decade now and I don't think I have ever heard him say one negative thing about his Dad. Instead, I have only heard stories of his father building things with him, teaching him, helping him, and supporting him.

I remember when Rob and I were dating and I went home with him for Christmas. One of my first impressions of Jim Webster was him on the floor playing with my nephew Max. Most adults were sitting on couches watching the kids play, but Jim was on his hands and knees playing with them. I knew then and there that he would be a wonderful grandfather to my kids.

I want to thank my Father-in-law for raising a son in a way that I can only hope to emulate. Jim Webster has raised three amazing children who are honestly three of the nicest, smartest, most well rounded, and best people I have ever known. I cannot thank him enough because his loving influence can be found in my own children and I couldn't ask for the father of my children to have been raised by a better father.

And next up is my husband. I might have to stop right now and pause because what can I say? There is absolutely nothing I can write here that will do justice to how amazing of a father my husband has turned out to be.

Rob loves his kids. I mean, he loves them! I have never in my life seen anyone more loving and patient towards their own kids. He is slow to anger, gentle, and just amazing.

I feel like I am faltering a little bit because I am truly awestruck at how lucky I got. I hit the jackpot when it came to husbands. I really did. Rob has never once ever complained about changing a diaper, getting up with the kids, putting them to bed, feeding them.... anything! Every "chore" of fatherhood he sees as a privilege.

He loves to teach our kids. He points out every single tree and rock and bird in nature and explains what they are. He is always playing songs on his guitar, playing chase, reading books, riding bikes, swinging in the hammock, flying a kite, making pancakes, kissing boo boos, and praying with them.

He will do anything I ask. Whether it is decorating a cake for a birthday party or working with Bennett on her ballet moves, he'll do it. And he is never tired when he walks in the door from a long day at work. Never. They are all over him the from the second he comes home until they are both asleep many hours later and he never complains. He never needs a minute to decompress. Never. I mean, how amazing is that?

And he is teaching my kids to love the Lord. Really love Him. He models for my children every day what it means to be a Godly man through the way he lives his life and the way he treats and loves me.

I feel so blessed to have a husband that has a relationship with the Lord. A man who lets the Lord guide our lives as a family and I am so happy our children get to see that modeled on a daily basis.

I want to thank my husband for being the best father I know. I cannot think of anyone else in the world that I would want to raise my children.

And finally, I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father. I am so humbled by the blessings he has bestowed so graciously upon me. He has shown me through my gandfather, my father, my father-in-law, and my husband what it means to be encouraged, loved, and cared for. I am so grateful for His grace which I need on an hourly basis. And I am grateful beyond words for His gift. The gift of eternal salvation which I pray we will now pass on to our children.

Happy Father's Day to all of you Dads out there. I am so thankful for the Dads in my life.

Malachi 4:6
He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.