Broken Legs, Beatitudes, and Baby Talk

So many pictures, so many stories, so many DAYS since my last post!  So I'll dive right in.

We are scheduled to break ground on our new house site today!  The unfortunate thing about that is the weather isn't looking good...for the next two weeks... So we might be delayed a good bit once again on getting this ball rolling.  But we are SO excited to finally have everything set to actually start.  Will definitely post pics once the process begins.

Susannah, in her 4 1/2 years of life, is already becoming a sage.  She notices things and says things that are beyond her years; she'll speak straight to your heart if you listen long enough.  I've been reading my favorite book on marriage again with several of my close friends.  It's called What's It Like to be Married to Me? by Linda Dillow, and it's revolutionary.  A huge part of it deals with thankfulness and response.  Do my responses to Pete in any given situation convey my love for Christ and for him?  Do my daily interactions with him convey thankfulness for him?  Tough questions.  God calls us to a "yes" answer to both of those questions, but so often I fall short.  So during the couple weeks I was reading those chapters and mulling over them, Susannah was my truth-sayer:

We've been encouraging the kids to say, "Thank you for [this meal], Mommy," without being prompted.  They've begun catching on recently, and one afternoon when Pete was at work, I said in response to their thank-yous, "You are so welcome!  Y'all are so sweet to me!"  To which Susannah's immediate response was, "And Daddy!  Daddy's sweet to you, too!"  This season of life -- when kids are talking to and pulling on you all day -- is the hardest to take notice of the sweetness of your spouse.  Thankful for that matter-of-fact reminder from my girl.

[I posted this one on Facebook, but I wanted it here, too.] Susannah and John had been PSYCHED about Valentine's Day since they saw the first red heart balloon in Walmart, so we'd been plotting for some time what we wanted to make or do for Pete to show him how much we love him. The week before Vday, I read the kids a story about a little boy who made his mom a very thoughtful present, and I said to them, "Let's make something thoughtful like that for Daddy for Valentine's Day! Okay, so...what's something we know that Daddy LOVES a whole lot?" I was thinking of things like dead animals or libertarianism, but Susannah immediately responded, "Well... us!" My sweet girl nailed it. There's no better testament to Pete's role in our family. His love for us is strong and obvious, and we are beyond thankful for such a man. (We did get him animal crackers, though, as a representation of dead animals you can eat -- John's idea.)

Sus teaches me a lot about thankfulness in general.  She's becoming the most kindhearted, thoughtful little lady, and I am so unbelievably proud of her.

John's also had his moments of truth-saying.  One evening after a particularly long day of hearing "mommy" 8 billion times (not counting the little runt who just pulled my pants down or squawked every few minutes since she couldn't say my name yet), I reached for a beer in the fridge upon Pete's truck entering the driveway.  I believe the clock read 4:58pm.  Close enough.  As I took the cap off and took my first swig, John came in the kitchen and said, "Mommy.  Ladies don't drink that."  WHATEVER, JOHN.  I couldn't stand up straight from laughing so hard.  John is the funniest mini-human in the world.

John also broke his leg 3 weeks ago, so he's recently perfected the art of peg-leg-walking, as he's been stuck in a bright yellow cast.  Pete took him to get his cast back when he first broke it, and when the nurse asked what color he wanted, John said, "Tan I pease have lellow pease?"  Of course, from then on the nurses were in love.  So between their chiding of my jumping on the trampoline with the kids (did I mention that?  yeahhhh, it was basically my fault), they complimented his cool, lellow cast alongside his amazing hair.  Can't miss John, these days! 

Mary is doing SO MANY THINGS these days!  In fact, just today she stood up from the floor without any support for the first time.  (PLEASE DON'T WALK YET.)  She points at everything, understands any word that has to do with eating, rambles in her baby language, and so many other tricks.  My parents are coming in town tomorrow, so in preparation she is currently having her first naptime sleepover with Sus and John in their room.  All is quiet, and it's been almost an hour, so I call that a success!!  Mary will be 1 in just over 2 weeks, and I'm blown away.  She still looks so much like a baby, even with her 5 teeth, it's hard for me to believe she's been hanging out with us for that long already.  I cannot wait to see her smash into her birthday cake.  All our kids have an intense love for food, but I think Mary wins.  She's petite, but she can eat a grown man under the table.

We have some exciting things coming up for our extended family!  Both Lauren and Brae are expecting little girls in just a few weeks!  This will be Lauren and Eric's 4th babe and 1st girl -- cannot WAIT for the new love that will enter their life.  This will be Brae and Mike's 5th babe and 4th girl -- Than Man reigns king of the kids!  We are counting down the days until there are new babies to snuggle.

Picture time!

Back in January, Sus and I went on a Big Girl Day outing for Starbucks, nails, Target, and Aldi.  The perfect day!

Plotting her steal.

Nobody loves Elmo more!

John's first man haircut!

Maybe the cutest picture in the whole world.

"Bye Mommy!  I'm going to far away lands and the grocery store!"

Pete took Susannah to a fancy Daddy-Daughter Date Night.  I'm not sure who was more excited!

My big kids

Sus trying to steal a kiss

Working man

Date with my handsome man!

At Urgent Care on the day of the big break

SO proud of his lellow cast!

Hey.

Life during dinner cleanup.

Susannah was in the newspaper with her craft from our library's Story Time.

SWEET LOVE

"I be the baby, you be the mama."

Overalls do me in every time.

The mulch king and queen

My sweeties playing out at our land

Susannah had her first paint party this weekend!

KARATE CHOP!

Someone's been watching her siblings!