Month: September 2009

It was most definitely the most gorgeous day we have had in a while.  The skies were clear and so very blue.  The sun was warm; the wind was blowing just enough to make it a perfect temperature.

Ruby had school all day.  Molly had her Art and Music class at church.  Mack and I went to Target to find Ruby pajamas for Friday–Pajama Day at her school!  How fun.  Mack and I really enjoy that little bit of time with just the two of us.  I told him the girls were going to school and it was our turn to just have Mack and Mama time.  He said, “Go to the sto’? (store)”  I guess we have a pattern here.  We have fun!

Today while I was starting dinner, I looked outside and saw the kids:

I didn’t know what they were doing at first…

Then, I saw that they were enjoying a magazine that Gran sends them each month.  They were so cute!!!  They enjoyed playing outside for a long time this evening.

As I was posting some of these random pictures, I was reminded of how messy my children’s hair always looks.  We have friends with girls that have straight hair and their hair usually looks just brushed–or at least tamed.  My girl’s hair is usually a bit frazzled looking.  I wash it and condition it and brush it and fix it!  I do.  I don’t know exactly what happens except that it just starts curling up and doing its own little thing.  Sunday morning when I was putting some mousse in Ruby’s hair to calm it down a bit, she asked, “Is this called Frizz Cream?”  I laughed and said, “It should be!”  They have many more mornings of dealing with “frizz cream,”  I’m afraid.

This past weekend my mom and dad came to visit us.  This was their first time to see the house since it was completed.  We had so much fun with them.  It was very nice to see them and have a relaxed weekend with them.  The kids had a lot of fun.  My parents are extremely generous with their money, especially towards us kids and the grandkids.  My dad bought us six rocking chairs for our porch!  They look great…I don’t have a picture to post because it rained most of the day yesterday, I didn’t think about it today, and now it is too dark to take a picture.  I will get one up later.  AND we shopped for some new living furniture.  All I wanted was a chair, but he ended up getting us a couch and chair.  It should be ordered early this week!  I can’t wait for it to get here.  We won’t even mention the cute outfits Ruby got or the bike basket or the calculator for Molly or the trucks for Mack.  Goodness gracious.  We are thankful for their generosity, for sure.  But we are also thankful that they stayed for three nights.  It was just nice to be with them.

My dad even got to go with Josh to “Pancakes with Papa” at Ruby’s school!  They all enjoyed that very much.  Ruby made a book for Josh .  She said that Josh has brown hair, greenish eyes and is 30 feet tall and weighs 30 pounds.  How cute.  She also said his favorite food is spaghetti, which it is not.  It is her favorite food though.  The best thing about her daddy is that “he lets me ride in his truck.”  Her favorite thing to do with her daddy is “go to the movie store.”

My parents and the kids and Josh hanging out on the front porch:

My mom was sneaking and letting Molly have a lot of the squirt icing!

Mom, Molly and Mack all made a cake together!

Mack was a good helper.

The men putting together the rocking chairs…all 6 of them!

Two bikes with baskets and bells!  Fun, fun.

Alrighty, it is late and Josh is rushing me to get off the computer.  Fun weekend with the family!  Hope your weekend was a good one, too.

Two weekends ago we had some friends, The Anderson Family and The Koester Family, over to eat Potato Soup, corn muffins and apple cake.  We all had a good time just hanging out.  We don’t have cable here at the house, so the guys were forced to hang out in the mud room so they can see the computer screen…where ESPN enabled them to watch the TN/FL game.  Poor guys.

They did talk and eat in the kitchen some, too.

The kids had a very fun time all playing together.  Mack stuck close by me because he was sick, though I didn’t know it at the time.

And I got a sweet picture of “baby Jack” and his mama, Deidre.  I am not saying that the Anderson Family is like the Dorminy Family, but IF they are, this may be one of the few pictures of Mama and kids or Mama period.  Josh likes to say, “You can either live life or take pictures of it.”  Isn’t that special?  So, our photo albums have very, very, very few pictures of me.  While I am not one to love having her picture made, I would like my kids to know what I looked like or just that I was there.  Josh said they would know I was there because who else would be taking the pictures?

“God is bigger than everything.  Even a buffalo.”

-Ruby Dorminy, age 5

I am no longer ecstatic about the rain.  That’s all I have to say today.

I am so serious when I tell you that I was ECSTATIC when I woke up to the sound of pouring rain.  I jumped out of bed, fixed cereal and strawberries for the girls, thanked the Lord that Mack was still sleeping, grabbed some coffee, my Bible and new study, and a little jacket and went straight out to the porch.  Heaven.

The new Bible study is by Priscilla Shirer, and I hope I will be able to share some stuff I am learning on here.  I am only on Day 2, but it is amazing how it is speaking to exactly where I am right now.  Good stuff.

Our Saturday has also consisted of more cooking.  We are making a new Potato Soup recipe that, so far, is very yummy.  It includes lots of BACON, so how could it not be delicious?!  And butter.  And cheese.  And potatoes, too.

Mack woke up from his nap in a very good mood.  If he wakes up crying, I dread the afternoon.  If he wakes up talking, all is well.  He rounded the corner with football in hand.  I handed him some bacon, and he was even happier!  This picture cracks me up.  Just like a little man…..

In his underwear, football in hand, bacon in the other, and a fruit punch mustache….what could be better?

I hope everyone is having as much fun as we are on their Saturday!

My parents were going to come see us this weekend, but decided to wait until next weekend, so we didn’t have any plans for tonight….which was really nice.  I mean, unless we had planned a romantic, quiet, relaxing night away–that would have been REALLY nice.  Anyway, we did have a fun Friday night.  I started with some nagging about how I really wanted to finish the girl’s headboards.  Nagging is so ridiculous.  I wish I wouldn’t do it.  And I did stop nagging, but only after he started working on them.  I think I hear a dripping faucet somewhere.  OK…so my sweet, loving, patient husband worked on the headboards.  We only got one finished because we need another piece of trim, but they are starting to look really good.  I “need” to find a stencil that I like if I want to do the “R” and the “M”  OR I should ask my sweet friend Coleen if she wants to take a stab at it.  And I also “need”  a cute doorknob for the doors.  There was one at Hobby Lobby, but it was $30.  I will keep looking.

Above you see the paint chip we chose to go with the bedding.

The painted doors and now Josh adding some trim.  They are looking good, and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

The kids played and acted silly outside.

This is a picture of part of the back porch.  I love to sit in one of these chairs while it is raining.  So nice!

After we got the kids in bed, which was actually very easy since they were exhausted from a full day, Josh and I started making an apple cake from a recipe we found on thepioneerwoman.com.  It looked so good, so we thought we’d try it out.  And I am so glad we did….except that I want to eat the whole thing now, and we all know that is just not a good idea.

There were apples everywhere….peeled, cored, slices and diced, and very yummy!

Then, there was butter.  Lots of butter and sugar and butter, oh my.

This picture above is the batter….oh my heavens.  I could have taken this bowl with me to the living room and just eaten the whole thing.  I didn’t.

These are the poor apples that didn’t get a chance to be a part of something spectacular.   Poor, poor Granny Smiths.

We had to taste it with a little ice cream…to make sure it was worth serving to our friends tomorrow.  I mean, we can’t just serve something that we have no idea how it tastes…right?  Right.

It was good.  Really good.

Worth the time, effort, calories and fun conversation Josh and I shared.  I think we’ll do it again next Friday night.

I wasn’t home last night, so I am not sure what basis this story has, but Mack has been telling me this:  “Daddy scared monkeys.  They come out.  Daddy cry.”  I asked him several questions trying to figure out what in the world he was saying.  It all boils down to these facts—Josh is scared of monkeys and if they come out at night he will cry and hide from them.

I guess if they come out in the daytime he won’t be scared?  Who knows.

Hilarious.

About a year ago I went into Thomasville Framing store and asked if they would give me a price for putting a baby dress of the girls into a shadow box.  The dress is precious.  They each wore it on their first day of Sunday School, which is when they were 6 weeks old.  My mom always told me to do this, but I had been putting it off.  The lady helping me pulled out a gorgeous frame and the prettiest green fabric background you have ever seen.  It set off the pink and green smocking perfectly.  Then, after we had both “ooh-ed and ahhh-ed” about it, she told me it would cost about $325.  “Really?  Ok, well, let me ask my husband, and I will get back to you.  Thank you.  C’mon, kids, let’s go……,”  I said in a very sweet, calm voice.  Then, I got in the car and called Josh, “Can you believe they expect me to pay over $300 to have a dress put in a frame?!”  Josh said, “You didn’t do it, did you?”  “Of course I didn’t do it!….It did look really good though.”  Silence.

Fast forward to today when I was going into Michael’s because a friend sent me a 60% off custom framing coupon.  As I walked to the back, no one was around to help me, so I wandered over to the frames section, and I found a shadow box that was about the right size.  The frame was very simple, borderline boring.  The backing was just plain felt black.  HOWEVER, it was $19.99 with 50% off.  $9.99 was going to be the price.  It was mine.

Is it beautiful?  No.  Is the backing just perfect for the dress?  No.

But, I don’t look at the frame when I look at this.  I see the sweet little dress that my girls wore when they were itsy bitsy.  And they aren’t itsy bitsy any more!  For now, it will do.  For forever, it will probably do….unless we become trillionares that just need something to do with all the extra money.