Kaiya's Prayer

The other night I was getting ready for bed and Kaiya was hanging out with me in my room. My legs were really itchy and so I was scratching my legs and saying, "My legs are driving me crazy! They are so itchy!"

Kaiya says: "Oh mama, I will help you with that." Folds her hands and bows her head: "Dear God (said very dramatically), please help mama's legs no not be skinny anymore."

The prayer was too sweet to interrupt -- but "not be skinny" -- NO!!!!! Definitely the last thing I would be praying...

More of the pictures Ruthie took...

Wordless Wednesday - Aunt Ruthie's Pictures

This has NEVER happened in our house before.

For those of you who know how much this girl loves her food... She actually fell asleep mid-meal at the dinner table last night. It was priceless.And this little guy has been pouting like crazy lately. Here is is with the classic pout look for his Aunt Ruthie. If anything doesn't go his way this is the reaction you can expect to get. He flops onto his bottom, stares at the ground and sticks that bottom lip out as far as he can. It usually comes out much further than this:

Enjoying his rice

We're having a pretty good weekend. Thursday through Saturday we worked a booth at the Speed Street Festival. This festival is one of the largest Charlotte has each year and comes before the NASCAR Sprint Cup held in town. So from 12-8 p.m. each day we were out there doing health screenings. It was exhausting, but we've got a week full of new patient appointments as a result, so definitely worth it.

We are working at the office for the morning shift today and then going to enjoy the rest of our day with Ruthie and Chris and the kids.

What's the worst thing...

...your child has ever eaten?

I just got to put one on the list for Kaleb. He ate a small piece of cat poop on Friday. About the size of a cheerio -- and that's exactly what he thought it was. And the worst part is that I thought it was a cheerio too... I watched him put it in his mouth. About 30 seconds later he made a horrible face and stuck his tongue out. Why it took him that long to figure out it was poo, I have no idea, but I quickly grabbed what remained off his tongue. ICK.

Saturday afternoon he got a fever. Not sure if it was the cat poo or the 6 teeth he is currently cutting. But he got adjusted and some Immunoberry supplement and we let his body do its thing. And it did -- just like it always does! Once again demonstrating that unless the fever hits an emergency level - 105-107 degrees - Tylenol is unnecessary!

So now just to make me feel a little better and to entertain the readers... What is the worst thing your child has ever eaten? Or for those without kids, the child of someone you know. And Kelli I'm hoping you'll comment -- cause I'm not sure if yours can be beaten. :)

Who Tooted?

On Thursday during Tony's birthday breakfast, Kaleb ripped a very loud fart. I asked him, "Kaleb, did you toot?" He violently shakes his head NO! I ask, "Well, who tooted then?" He smiled and pointed to his bottom.

A round of laughter followed from everyone.

Apparently he doesn't realize they are one in the same.

Introducing... Baby Cakes

Kaiya got a new doll this weekend. She was found at a yard sale for 25 cents. Possibly only 25 cents because she was naked. But we quickly remedied that by digging into Kaiya's old preemie clothes. Kaiya was so excited when she saw this dress that she wore for Easter:





And it fit the doll just perfectly! She decided to name her doll Baby Cakes. I call Kaiya that sometimes, I guess. But I didn't think she really liked it because she would always tell me that she is not Baby Cakes - she is Half Pint (Papa's nickname for her). So I was surprised that she decided to name the doll Baby Cakes. I taught her how to swaddle the baby last night and she really liked that. It's been fun.

Happy Birthday Tony!

Yesterday was Tony's birthday! The night before I told Kaiya that it was his birthday tomorrow and she got very excited. "I will make him pancakes for his birthday!" she decided. So when we woke up, we let Daddy stay in bed a little bit later and got started on his birthday breakfast. Look at my two little helpers!

Quite proud of themselves for getting Daddy's birthday breakfast ready.

When I thought about a birthday post for Tony, I really kept getting struck with the thought that I'm so thankful for his life. So Laura, thanks for choosing life for your son. Look at the blessing that he has become to so many people because of that one decision you made to give him life. I try to step back and imagine what it must have been like for you - young, single - a whole life ahead of you, people in your support system encouraging you to have an abortion. By choosing life for Tony you have given me a wonderful husband and beautiful children. He's not only impacting lives for the kingdom, but also making a major impact on our patients' health. He is changing lives. Just one choice... that changed my life. Happy Birthday Tony!

And... we're all actually looking!

Kaiya: Was Money Bags (our cat) in your tummy too?

DISCLAIMER: I am not pregnant. We've only been discussing things being in my tummy because Kaiya was convinced she was in my tummy before I married Daddy. Had to set her straight on that one.

31 Cent Ice Cream

Tonight is Baskin' Robbins 31 cent scoop night! From 5-9 p.m. you can get a scoop of your favorite flavor. They are raising money for firefighters. So not only do you get a great deal, but you support a cause at the same time! That's a win-win!

A new dress & dino

For Kaleb and his new dinosaur from Nannie, it was love at first bite:

Kaiya wearing the new dress I made her. Alli - thanks for sending the pattern! Not quite as cute as the ones you have made for Emerson, but not too bad for my first try. :)

Ted Haggard at Elevation

Two posts in one day? *Gasp!*

But I just couldn't wait to post this one. Sunday at Elevation Church is going to be interesting! Here's a little news video clip that shares what is going on this weekend at our church: Ted Haggard at Elevation Church

If you think of us on Sunday, would you pray that the story would be told effectively and that God would work?

Roaches & STDs

You had to know this one was coming, right? I haven't posted on vaccines in awhile. The general consensus from a large majority of people is that the Gardasil vaccine is a bit sketchy. So the reason I post about it again, is not to try to convince you to spare your daughters (& sons) from this one, but to show you another example of the unethical practices of pharmaceuticals and the FDA. Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?

Gardasil Contains Roach Killer?

Verbal Abuse

Kat, our nanny, has begun suffering verbal abuse on the job. In the span of 24 hours, here's what happened:

Kat was moving one of the riding toys and bumped against something. Kaiya yells, "Be careful, you idiot!" Kat asked - "What did you call me?" Kaiya: "Idiot!" Apparently she learned this lovely phrase from Sebastian on The Little Mermaid. She got a time out and was told to remove the word from her vocabulary.

The next afternoon, both Kat and I were home, relaxing in the living room. I can't remember what prompted it, but all of a sudden Kaiya looks at Kat and says, "You are ugly!" After making an attempt to explain what ugly means. In case you are wondering...this is not easy to explain to a 3 year old. I used several Disney analogies and did my best to communicate the hurt that these words can cause. After some probing, I discovered that she learned this line from Sound of Music. One of the boys tells Frauline Maria that her dress is ugly.

Seriously... the kid is a sponge right now. And she watches TV with her breakfast and again while dinner is being made. Which I thought was a reasonable amount. We may be coming up with a new game plan... Then again, maybe this is just part of being three.

I didn't watch the pageant this past weekend, but have read plenty about it over the past few days. Does anyone else just want to give Miss California a hug? The poor girl is being lambasted by the media and supposed "friends" over her answer to the question. If you missed it and haven't seen any coverage of this, here's a video from YouTube:


Could someone release a positive statement of support on this already? Makes me wanna send the girl some fan mail.

When being good doesn't feel so good...

Friday night I headed to Harris Teeter to get some flowers. They had flats for $6, which is about half of what the rest of the city has them for. I had decided to buy 2 flats to plant around the house. I picked out my flowers and took them inside to pay for them. The cashier rang up the flowers and I noticed that my total was only about half of what it should have been. You know what saving money does to me. I've mentioned that it is like a drug addition for me. :) Not many things make me happier. So inside my mind I am thinking... is he done scanning the flowers? Am I gonna get all these flowers for $6? He tells me the total and I scan my debit card, pay for my purchase and leave the store. As I walk to the car I can't believe my luck! Gobs of flowers for $6.44! I'm almost to my car and I really start to feel like I need to take the flowers back inside and get my receipt adjusted. So I trudge back inside... you know what I mean... where you want to drag your feet behind you and are practically having a Jim Carrey moment in the parking lot where you are throwing yourself forward and backward and practically dragging yourself into the store. Yeah that was me on the inside. For appearance's sake I managed to keep it together. I waited at the customer service counter reminding myself that Harris Teeter gives you the item free if they overcharge you and you catch it. Maybe they will do that for undercharging me too! Umm... they don't. When you tell them you think you were undercharged, they stare at you in disbelief and tell you that "no one" comes back for being undercharged! As if I needed another reminder of the alternative plan of taking my deal and running!

I paid the difference and trudged back to my car. When I went to the store I was fully prepared to pay $12 for two flats of flowers and still all I could think about was... that sucked. On my drive home I really started thinking about how doing the right thing doesn't always give you the warm fuzzies. Sometimes it really does suck. Sometimes you hate every minute of it. But that doesn't change the fact that the right thing is still the right thing. It could be having a tough conversation with someone that you have hurt. It could be swallowing your pride and admitting you are wrong. It could be saying no and risking social rejection for not doing the popular thing. Bottom line is that we aren't called to do the right thing because of how it will make us feel. We do the right thing because He asks us to.

Pink Cake

One of Kaiya's favorite parts about church is the snack (no surprise here... the girl loves to eat). Typically she gets goldfish crackers for snack, which is great because it becomes something special at church and I don't have to buy them at home. A few weeks ago I picked Kaiya up from Sunday School and we were heading out to the car and she told me that they didn't have goldfish at church. I asked her what they had for snack and she said, "Pink Cake!" Tony and I exchange a look that is translated, "They wouldn't really do that, right?" And so we keep peppering her with questions:

Are you sure it was cake? Yes.
And it was pink? Yes.
Did it have anything else on it? Yes, pretzels?
Pretzels? Yes. On your cake? Yes.

So now we think that she is possibly making this story up. But she keeps insisting. I don't think she has ever had cake before, so I asked her what it tasted like. She said, "It was good." Well, that would probably be true of cake.

Then I remember that I can call a friend who has a little girl in Kaiya's Sunday School. So I text her and ask what Jasmine said they had for snack. She replied back that Jasmine said they had cake. So that solves it. Kaiya is not just making things up. They really did serve cake to the 2 year old Sunday School class at 8:30 a.m. I couldn't believe it.

Fast forward to the next week at church. I very sweetly ask the teacher if they know ahead of time what snack will be each week. She said they never know... as someone else is in charge of that and just brings it in each morning. She asked if something was wrong with last week's snack and I just said that Kaiya told me they had pink cake and we really don't allow her much sugar and so I was just curious. She smiled and said - oh! Snack last week was a small rice cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting. And then they put smile faces on with pretzels. We had a good laugh over that one. And I told the teacher that snacks like that would be fine.

Aha! Doesn't that make complete sense! Pink Cake! Because of Kaiya's inexperience with cake, she had no idea what she was actually eating for snack. She heard them call it cake and so cake it was!

Elevation Church Easter Opener from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

Thought I would share this neat video with you. Our church put this together for Easter. Tony did a little digging and we found it! We thought it was pretty cool.

Happy Easter!

Praising God this morning for the 100+ who accepted Christ at the 8:30 service.

Now that's what I'm talking about!