Jen and I are bad worker-outers.

For a few weeks now, Jen and I have been getting together a couple times a week to work out and be fit. Unfortunately, the two of us have the willpower of a...well, something that doesn't have willpower. Half the time, we find some lame excuse to either not meet at all or quit early. So much for accountability! (Jen, I love you and I love our "workout times!") All of that to say, "Hey, at least we haven't quit altogether!"

Lilly watches me work out, and, the supportive daughter that she is, asks me after each workout, "Mommy, are you skinny yet?"

This Monday, I asked Jen to go for a walk instead of out usual Paula Abdul's CardioDance or Jillian Michael's something-or-other, and we decided to walk (almost) the length of the Riverwalk in Mishawaka. In gale-force wind. With strollers to push. I guess that's about 3 miles, round-trip, so I'm pretty proud of us for doing it at a pace faster than a turtle. We did it in less than an hour, even stopping halfway to take pictures of Lilly. Go us!

On our way back to the car, Lilly asked Jen, "Are your muscles big now?" Lilly is such an encourager!

Some photos of the day:

The crew...My beautiful kids...Can you believe he'll be one on Friday!?!See? Jen was there.Logan was thrilled with the walk, as you can see...Lilly's 3...My little model...

Good morning, sunshine.

It's sunny this morning. That's all. New posts coming soon!

It's a miracle!

Lilly can walk again! Now maybe I can regain my sanity...

Judah popped a tooth!

In the words of Lilly, "Judah popped a tooth!" And it only took him 11 months and 3 weeks to do it! I think tooth #2 is soon to follow. When I got my camera to take a picture of the new tooth, I guess Judah decided to turn on the charm. He wouldn't stop scrunching his face! Enjoy!

My daughter is driving me CRAZY!!!

For a much more amusing version of the following story, please read Jen's recounting HERE.

Ann reminded me to post about the latest trial of having a three year old so I would be able to look back and laugh one day. This is not that day. I do, however, intend to slurp my blog into book form as a baby book of sorts for the kids, so I will recount Lilly's new issue:

She skinned her knee last Friday. I'll admit, it was a nasty scrape, but not worthy of all the drama that has unfolded on our household over the last 4 days. Immediately after we cleaned her knee up and bandaged it with a monster band-aid, she professed that she could not walk. I tolerated that behavior for Friday night, but told her that she would be better by the morning (which usually works). She prayed for her knee, and then we did too, and she said her normal healing prayer response, "Jesus is healing me!" I was thinking everything would be fine by morning. I was wrong.

Lilly REFUSED to get out of bed by herself on Saturday. I (being the good mom that I am) told her that she would have to stay in her wet diaper and not have breakfast until she walked to the bathroom and then her seat at the table. She laid at the top of the stairs for over an hour. I don't think she ever got her breakfast. I was NOT happy with Lilly, especially since we were having her birthday party that afternoon. (Side note: I have issues with planning events of any scale, because most times when I have even slightly above average expectations of decent attendance, good times and happy memories, no one shows up or the event is a dud. Case in point--Lilly's 2nd b-day party--She needed a nap like none other and cried and refused to look at anyone the entire 1st half of the party. Her mommy was mucho dissappointed.)

Long story short, she refused to stand up or walk the entire duration of the party, the remainder of Saturday, all day Sunday, and yes, all day today, so far. She has pushed me well past the point of exhasperation...and we're approaching rage at times. I've tried spanking, the naughty-spot, "throwing away" all of her dresses, and now she's shut in her room without toys, bedding, or books.

The most mobility we can get out of her is a strange froggy-style hop/crawl. And she does stand like a flamingo with her injured leg drawn all the way up. We've tricked her into walking a couple times, but she suddenly becomes lame the instant she realizes the trick. I know that her knee can't be hurting her that much, because I've watched her bang it into the ground when she's crawling. And her attitude is...special. The tantrums we've had over the past couple days should last us awhile.

Here's hoping she walks soon. I'll be a much happier mommy then.

Freshwind 2009 :: BOLD AS LIONS!!!

Every year, Matt and I have the privilege of taking the Soul Pardoners to the Freshwind conference in Toronto, Canada. This year's trip was awesome! We left EARLY last Thursday morning and came home Sunday morning in time to celebrate Easter with our Open Door family. Matt and I also got to baptize 2 of our "kids" at church. Pretty cool! God did a TON in each of our hearts this weekend, and I'm still processing it all! I am anxiously awaiting the conference MP3's so that I can really absorb everything that was taught. I posted a few highlights on the Soul Pardon blog, and if you're interested, you can read them here. Here are some of my favorite images from the weekend:

That's right, here's a photo of ME! I am hardly ever in a shot, so I decided to make sure of being in at least 3 photos during this trip. Good for me. It's never fun driving into the sunrise, but Matt was a champ. You can see Kyle waving in the reflection of Kirt's sunglasses. Good times.

If you look closely, you can see the reflection of some Soul Pardoners huddled to the left of the staircase in the skylight. One of our few posed shots...Kyle always does any weird thing I tell him to, as long as it makes a silly picture. Here's an example. Other ones are posted in the facebook photo album.

Thank You, Jesus!

Here are some photos from Easter Sunday. We hung out at the 'rents, watched Lilly hunt for eggs while Jude took a nap, and enjoyed general good times. My favorite part of the day was when Andrew & Nic played Barbies with Lilly (didn't get Nic in a photo, though...bummer).

Just wanted to add a Judah shot. Here he is climbing on the platform at church. What a little dude!

lilly b is three!!!

Lilly turned 3 on the 9th, while Matt and I were in Toronto. On the 8th we celebrated her birthday. It's hard to believe she's already 3 years old!April 9, 2006...Her 1st birthday cake...Her 2nd birthday (after the nap)...We gave Lilly a cupcake to blow the candles out on, and we'll be having a regular cake and the kids' birthday party this weekend. After she blew out the candles, I asked her if she like her cupcake, and she looked up at me, sighed, and said, "Where's the big cake?" Sheesh. This is the birthday I've been waiting for since I found out we were 90% sure of having a girl, so long ago! This year I got to give her her first Barbie! (And her second, third, fourth and fifth...I went a little crazy with the Barbies!) I LOVED playing with Barbies when I was a kid, and I'll admit, I played with them a little when I was taking them out of the ridiculous packaging.