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.
What a whirlwind of fun December was! We did not attempt going to see Santa again (second year in a row we've sat that one out), as Sus has always been enraptured with the idea of Santa and terrified of the actual Santa. John would react however Susannah reacted, as he does with any and everything, so it would have been ugly. While scared-kids-with-Santa pics are hilarious, we have 2 of those of Sus already, and I think that's probably enough, lest we send her to counseling later in life. I'm actually the worst at this Santa game anyway. For starters, Pete and I don't want an imaginary man getting credit for all the good gifts, so Santa only brings stocking stuff (toothbrushes, underwear, oranges, and candy -- exciting, but not big ticket items if you know what I'm saying). So we don't play him up that big in the first place. (We have limited funds, y'all, don't hate.) However, Susannah still wanted to write Santa a letter this year describing the things she wanted, so she wrote a page chock-full of scribbles and told me, "It says, 'Dear Santa, I want anything that you give me.'" In my grown-up mind, I didn't think it was that big of a deal to "mail" it since there were (a) no specific requests and (b) stocking stuffers already purchased. So, like a careless, unimaginative person, I laid the list on the top of the trash one night after the kids went to bed. You know where this is going. The next day, Susannah opened the trash (for reasons still unknown... I think sometimes she just likes to keep tabs of what we're tossing out) and immediately exclaimed, "MOMMY! Why is my letter to Santa in the trash?!" Oh boy. I don't even know how I weaseled my way out of that one. Lots of blubbering about confusion and that I'd put it in the mail ASAP. She'll talk about that in counseling one day, I'm sure. John is in a stage that Susannah never entered: he only speaks in questions. Not literally, but that's what it feels like. "Mommy, what's this?" "When we gonna go to PopPop and Dizzy's house again?" "Did ThanMan give me this shirt?" "Can I have a snack, please?" "Can you help me, please?" "Can I help you cook dinner?" "When we gonna go swimming again?" "Does Hudson wear basketball pants?" "Does it take 78 days to go to Aunt KK and Uncle Bear's house?" "Where's Daddy?" "Remember the man cave at Pop and Figgy's house?" and on and on and on and on and on AND ON. Yesterday before church, I promise you he asked me 20 questions in under 10 minutes. He's our curious little buddy, and it's really cute thinking about it later on, but I want to pull my hair out by question 10 in the midst. His vocabulary is impressive, though, and he is so funny. The other day he needed me for something and was saying, "Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy...." Pete said, "What do you need, John?" And John said, "MOMMY TO LISTEN TO ME!" Now that's hilarious! Mary is crawling like a crazy girl! She's all over the place now, and it's so fun. She's most proud of herself when she finds someone in another room. The squeals of delight are so precious. She's also eating us out of house and home along with her siblings. I'd been having to cut her off so that she wouldn't overeat! At her 9 month checkup, however, we noticed that her weight percentile had surprisingly taken a bit of a plunge, so the doctor basically told me to fatten her up. So Mary's dreams have come true: she can basically eat until her heart's content every meal, and even get a snack time now. I'm sure in her little baby mind she's thinking she has absolutely arrived. And now for a cluster of pictures from various points of December and this first half of January:
Mary loves having a "Mary's turn!" now. She's in the daddy-fun rotation, and gets PUMPED when she hears S&J say, "MARY'S TURN!"
This is a MEME waiting to happen. Hand on her hip telling me like it is!
Such a fun season we're in now with Sus: board games!
"Daddy, Daddy, come in, Daddy!"
Sus has been on this scientist kick, saying she wants to be a scientist when she grows up, so I absolutely jumped on that for Christmas and got her a microscope!
Figgy knows how to accessorize some babies with THE CUTEST things! Don't you just want to eat her?
At the airport, heading to Memphis!
Even if you get in at 10pm, you still have storytime with Dizzy before bed.
Indoor winter games! Courtesy of Aunt Lauren.
An Elf snack. John wanted to eat it just how Buddy the Elf did.
Sus was a little more dainty.
The whole Ware gang at the Christmas Eve service
Matching cousins!
John and Hudson helping Aunt KK and Uncle Bear make sugar cookies to decorate
Decorating cookies
An early-morning flight from Memphis back home makes for one of the sweetest moments for me as a mom. Sus and Mary were both sweetly sleeping on me, and John was asleep behind us on Pete's arm (see next pic). The flight attendant was sweet enough to capture this moment.
Love that he fell asleep like this
Acker Family Christmas came just a few days after we returned from Memphis!
All fancy for NYE
Our annual NYE party / anniversary pic! Love my man somethin fierce.
These are my best friends, and they are the most beautiful souls.
These friends are 2 months apart and love each other so much!
Our annual NYE 7:30pm Ball(oon) Drop!
Bottom to Top: 2015, 2016, 2017. John and his two best buddies.
The Christmas gift that has given me the most free time to date.
Warming bellies by the wood stove!
Mary finally gets to bathe with the big kids!
SNOW! LOTS and LOTS of SNOW!
I caught Mary smiling in the snow one time. After this one grin, she was pretty much over it.
Dream land for Sus
Smiling because it was only Day 1 of our 5 days of being snowed in...
Happy girl!
When the snow doesn't stay out of your snow clothes, Daddy knows how to improvise.
The boy LOVES snow.
Meet Packowee, our redneck snowman, who's actually a girl.
Susannah writes her name now! This was a week ago, and she's written it so many times since then that her handwriting has already gotten better. The girl has a love of learning.
I could stare at that sweet face all day. And some days I do.
My life was made yesterday, as Sus and I were twins for church! I told Pete if we had the money, I'd create an entire wardrobe of matching outfits for me and my girls.
Reading time
And here are some fun videos:
Mary's favorite word:
Mary loves affirmation:
Susannah sends a video message to Figgy:
I'd just told John I was going to come in the room when he was wrapping my Christmas presents:
