Once in a Lifetime

Once in a lifetime you get to do things:
Get Married. Hold your First born in your arms,

Watch Air Force One land

See your first born shake the President's hand....

Regardless of your political views, that is a once in a lifetime experience that can never be replaced. He had the opportunity to meet the leader of our country.  What a history lesson for my son as we talked about who the President was, why He was important, and also that God teaches us to respect the government, unless of course we are told to go against God's written word.  We talked about the sovereignty of God.  It was a day!

Needless to say, we came home playing "Air Force One."  Grayson has decided that he wants to be President.  I told him he could do anything the Lord called him to do and if he keeps the Lord center of his life, he would make an incredible President.

FIVE

FIVE.

My baby's five. Where, oh where did the time go? I am in denial. He can't be five. After one, five is the first big milestone birthday.   His picture was made in the bluebonnets to commemorate the event. It is now hanging on my wall.  In not too many years, his 18th birthday picture will be hanging beside it.  Sigh. It makes me sad.  Years of praying to be a mom and now the answer that I thought would never come is five.  God is so good.

Grayson -

Now you are five. It seems like just yesterday you were an infant that I had no idea what to do with.  Then you were a toddler, into trucks and dirt. It seems as if overnight you went from that little one to a little boy. Trucks and dirt turned to superheros and capes.  Those have now been traded to Star Wars and Legos. Big boys like Star Wars and Legos.  You can't possibly be that big.

This picture captures it all. You always have a smile on your face and your eyes dance with mischief.  Even running, you are constantly smiling.  You are an expressive child.  We love to hear you tell stories as your whole face expresses the story. You are animated to say the least.

Little Man, you are a delight.  You have a sweet and sensitive spirit. Though you can pick unmercifully on Hope, you are a tremendous big brother.  You are always willing to help. You are quick to make sure that your sisters are taken care of. You are learning that your role as a brother is to love and to protect your sisters. We have watched you this year grow into that role.  You are Michaela's biggest fan and are already teaching her many things and looking out for her. We pray that all three of you will remain close in the years to come.  We often tell you that God has given you a big role in being the big brother of not one, but two sisters.  God is proud of how you take that seriously. I periodically hear you tell Hope, "a gentleman gets the door."

You love sports.  This year you took on soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring.  You loved both of them. You also progressed in your swimming and learned to use your arms. We spent many days at the pool and perhaps your favorite thing to do was to swim with your pops.  Uncle Justin taught you how to dive this summer.

Your imagination is going in full force.  You and Hope dream up games and play them; everything from lifeguard to football games to hide and seek.  The two of you also love to play "bikes and trikes" and we can often find you riding circles on the driveway. Just another sign of you growing up: your training wheels came off this year and you also picked up riding a scooter.

You love to build - whether it be Lincoln Logs, blocks or legos.  You love to create and to ask me to guess what it is you have built.  You build everything from towers to planes to bat caves.

You have also gotten into playing games with the family.  It seems as you have mom's competitive streak and hate to lose.  Games you love are Cootie, Battleship and Sorry!  You also talked daddy into downloading an electronic battleship on the I-Pad.  It's entertaining to hear how you sank the ships.

You love to sing and dance.  We crack up as you and Hope dance to "fast music" in the evenings.

This summer you have also learned to read.  I am so proud of you, although it's just another milestone to remind me that you are indeed growing up.

You love to learn and tell your Bible stories!

We are so blessed to have you as a son. What a wonderful answer to prayer you are.

Who's the Parent?

We have struggled lately with bossiness from our eldest child. In fact, I am beginning to wonder who is the parent around here. Grayson seems to think that he is the dad and is constantly ordering Hope around, correcting her, etc. I read a while back in Creative Correction that an idea for disciplining this was to allow the child to do all of the parent's responsibilities for the day. For example, make lunch, wash clothes, dishes, etc. I am not sure how well this will work with an almost five year old. We did tell Grayson that if he continued he could do all things that a daddy does if we heard him correcting Hope.

Today I was in my room and heard Hope say, "Grayson, if you don't stop it, Mommy's going to make you wipe my bottom." I laughed and thought, "Great, now we have another mini-parent in the house."

One of Those Days

It's just been one of those days...you know the ones where all you can do is laugh. About 4 am I heard the not so sweet pitter patter of little girl feet. They went down the hall to the potty and back. I thought victory, but am not so sure that she ever went back to sleep. By 6:20ish I heard, "Grayson, it's time to get up." In whose world? Not in mine. It's time to sleep....and so the day started.

With that little sleep, you can only imagine how loving my kids were to one another and how much crying I heard. It was a long morning. Finally it was time to pack up for swim lessons, ahhhh relief. Only the car wouldn't start. Stink. So, we called roadside assistance and waited. More screaming ensued as we were supposed to meet up for a play date.

We finally headed out to meet our friends. Halfway there we got a call that her pool was closed. Of course it was. I laughed. Change of plans, we headed to her mom's house. The Smith clan piled out and headed for the pool. Five minutes later while I was with Hope in the bathroom, Grayson tripped on a piece of glass and sliced his foot open. Wide open. More screaming. I left the girls screaming with Liz and Grayson and I headed to the new Texas Children's ER.

Fantastic ER. Six stitches later, we are home. Is it bed time yet?

End of Year Program

Where has this year gone? I started the year not getting a  picture on the first day b/c I had a four week old.  For the end of the year, I managed to find the camera, but not get any pictures of the kids together, the kids with their teachers or the kids with us.  Boo. Bad mom.  At least I have some pictures.

We had a great year at Crosspoint, with great teachers and great friends.  The kids would ASK to go to school during the week and today asked why they couldn't go over the summer. That says so much to me about their experience at school.

Here are a few snapshots of their last day.

Michaela, who still won't smile for the camera, waiting for me to finish getting dressed.  She matched Hope in dress and bow, but I don't have them together. They looked really cute, if I do say so myself.

Hope's class sang Jesus Loves Me and the Wheels on the bus.

Hope is on the left in pink, crossing her heart. This is one of her favorite songs to sing. We have sung it to her ever since she was a newborn, both at nap and bedtime.  I hear her now singing to her babies or in the car.  She knows the second verse too:

Jesus loves me he who died

Heaven's gates to open wide

He will wash away my sin

Let this little child come in. 

There is not a sweeter sound (other than the silence of naptime) to me:

She also sang the Wheels on the Bus.

The Wheels go round and round:

The doors go open and shut:

Grayson has grown so much this year. Of course he is in the middle because he is the tallest. Is anyone surprised?  On his right is his friend, Hudson and three to the left is his buddy, Truitt.  It was fun for the three of them to be in class together, although I think the teacher had her hands full with them.  Boys!

Their end of the year song was from Toy Story: You've Got a Friend in Me.

God or Target

Jamison has been home this week as he is in between jobs. I think it's been great to have the help and to have some family time. I think the kids are enjoying daddy being around as well. One of the things he has seen is how many questions I answer in a day.  Where Grayson leaves off, Hope picks up. It's incredible.  At the zoo yesterday, we answered at least nine thousand "why" questions, many which were a series of whys that ended in one of us saying, "That's the way God made it."  "God" is the good, safe, truthful answer to all of our questions. Not long after we got home, I told Michaela that I bought her a new sippy cup. Jamison asked, "where did that come from?"  To which I said, "Target."  Jamison quickly replied, "Of course it did.  In fact, all questions in this house can be answered with either 'God' or 'Target.'"

Your parenting tip of the day is brought to you courteous of Jamison Smith.

All About My Mom....

All About My Mom...by Grayson Smith
(What Grayson wrote about me at preschool - pretty comical in my opinion)

My Mom's name is Jennifer
My Mom likes to cook
My Mom's favorite flower: Daisy
My Mom has taught me to run faster than my dad
My Mom's favorite hobby is to eat candy
My Mom helps me to read
I love My Mom because she takes care of me.
My favorite thing to do with my mom is play tractors
My favorite memory is play star wars

Cousins

What a fun weekend!  My brother and family were in town from D.C.  Oh how I wish they lived closer. The kids had the best time playing together.  It makes me long for the day when we can all live closer and play together more often. On Sunday, my cousin, Kelley joined us with her twins, Gage and Ainsley. I am not sure that my mom's house will ever be the same.  There were six kids that were 5 and under there: Grayson (4.5), Gage & Ainsley (3), Hope (2.5), Chance (1) and Michaela (9 mos.).  Jon and Robin also announced the name of the newest cousin due in August, Carson Jack Crockett! 

Michaela and her bonnet - this picture reminds me of Miss Scarlet and her bonnet in Gone With the Wind!

Chance getting ready to jump.  

Ainsley and Hope

Ainsley, Hope and Michaela

Now for all of them....

Easter 2011

Easter Celebrations began with making cupcakes for Easter dinner. I had two little helpers that were super eager to help, especially because the process involved lots of sugar/candy.

Decorating!

Eating the candy.  I am sure that the kids ate more candy than they put on the cupcakes. Well, so did mom!

The finished bunny basket.  Strange thing, on Sunday morning all the twizzlers had snapped in two so it looked like the cupcakes had antennas. Grayson blamed the Easter bunny for sabotaging his cupcakes.

Happy Girl!

The morning began with an Easter egg hunt in the back yard:

Did he leave any on the roof?

The Easter bunny left Michaela her own separate eggs on a towel, how thoughtful.

Yummmm....puffs!

Good luck getting a good Easter picture....here's how things really went down...

After church we headed to Conroe to see my family!  Poor Mimi was cooking and didn't make the pictures

Pops and Michaela

Pops and the kids

Nana and Hope

Nana and the big kids

Papaw and the big kids

Jack and the Big Kids

Jack talking to Michaela

There was yet another Easter egg hunt! Thanks Uncle Justin!

Class Easter Parties

We had a fun filled day of Easter parties for the kids. Since they were at the same time and both kids wanted me there, Mimi came down to help out.  I missed Hope's egg hunt as I got there 2 minutes late.  They were out the door and done.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Sweet Michaela Joy missing her morning nap.

Mommy and Hope.  We are working on sitting in a lady like position.

Mommy and Her Girls:

Grayson's Class:

Grayson and His Buddy, Hudson:

Mimi and the Big Kids:

Mommy and the Big Kids - they were tired of pictures, can you tell?