A Kid's Version

This afternoon, to make the kids stop watching tv and wrestling with each other, I put on a nice, Christian kid's CD. It has some really cute songs on it and I should let the kids listen to it more often but I always forget I have it. Anyway, my daughter was painting on her watercolor and a song came up that she obviously knew from Sunday School. It also made me reminisce about my own Sunday School memories so I started singing it as well. I was immediately reprimanded by the demands of my daughter that only the BOYS sang that part. If you all are familiar with the song, "Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia, Praise Ye the Lord," that was the song in question. She went on to sing it and say, "mommy, the girls sing, 'Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia' and the boys sing, 'crazy the Lord.'" After I finished laughing and wondering what they weren't teaching them in Sunday School, I was impressed that she actually got most of the words right. It's the little things in life that make you smile. I'm sure God's smiling too.

In other news, my son was dancing in the living room, complete with a one-leg kick, to the movie, "12 dancing princesses." I wasn't going to breathe a word of this outside of our house but he's only 1 1/2. He does play with cars...he just has fun dancing. =) The Lee house never quits.

A Mighty Strength

This last month has been devastating for my extended family. After just losing my aunt to cancer in February, we found out that my cousin's husband, Ben (just 25), has an extremely rare cancer in his abdomen. He has started treatment and is an incredible inspiration to all of us with his trust and hope in God. Please pray that his cancer will disappear and he will continue to fill our lives with that unshakeable faith. His blog is under "Ben & Lisa" and he's chronicling his days in chemotherapy. It was an unbelievable last few weeks and my family is still coming to terms with this new chapter but we pray that God will fill us with his peace and that His will be done. Thank you!!

Wedded Bliss

This last weekend, one of my best friends got married in a beautiful church in Pasadena. Unfortunately, I didn't have the good sense to take a picture of it because I was in such a whirlwind of bliss, being without my children. You wouldn't think being a bridesmaid was stress-free but, compared to my regular day, being in a wedding was like going on a retreat. Adult conversation, dressing up without slobber all over, and the ability to look good for a reason...it was too good to be true. Jenna and Joey got married by my dad, who did a great job. I even managed not to let too many tears flow down my cheeks at the amazing grace of God. For years we've prayed for the perfect guy for Jenna and she finally found him. It was all I could do to not start bawling when the bagpipe player walked down the aisle in front of her and her dad before he gave her away. It was the moment we had all prayed for.

Here she is in all her finery. Jenna looked gorgeous and was pretty cool, considering the church she was married in hadn't had air conditioning for the past 100 years. One of their rules was pretty scary. We were told not to prop open doors since some vagrants walk in off of the streets and make the place like home if we leave it open to the world.

Here is my sister and me just before the ceremony. There were 7 bridesmaids in all.

This was Mikayla playing with Jenna's niece, Madeleine, a few days before the wedding. They have so much fun playing together. They're only 4 months apart but they're about a head different in height.

This is one of about 50 shots I took of these two sitting on the wicker chair. Wow, I didn't think it would be that difficult to get a good picture of them both but it happened, somewhat. I think Tyler sees something that more entertaining than mommy with a camera in the background. Mikayla tried to make him look and smile but since it was his sister, she had a tough job. He's more likely to scream than obey directions from his 2nd mother.

Sorry it's taken so long to update. Things have been hectic around here and every time I try to get on the computer, the wee ones follow and make it hard to concentrate. Not that I mind them trying to go everywhere I go but it makes for a computer trip that is 2 times longer than it should be.

Was that "Ariel?"

My son isn't saying too many words. Everyone keeps telling me that it's normal for an 18 month old boy to not do a lot of talking. I just think it's that my son is so effective at getting what he wants that he feels he doesn't need to use any extra effort. He's a laid back kind of guy. Sure he says a few things like, "ca-ker" for cracker and about 10 others but there were 2 words that came as a shock to me. My cousin Cheryl and I were in Target and we were checking out the kid's shoe section when my son went crazy saying, "Dado, Dado, DADO!" I frantically swung around to determine what would cause such a reaction and saw a Dora towel hanging by the housewares products. I asked if that was what he wanted and he smiled and reached. Once he was hugging the towel, I vowed not to tell Will that his son had a crush on an explorer named Dora. Cheryl is now determined to find something for Tyler that has Dora on it and isn't girly. Good luck. I think he likes her more than Mikayla does. I thought that was the end of the "girly" interests until I sat down to read a book to Tyler and he grabbed a princess book. Right off the bat, he pointed to Ariel and said, "Aweew." My son's most important words are the pretty princesses and adventuresses. Do I have to worry about his teen years???

Every once in a while, I make my mom's famous oatmeal raisin cookies for a co-worker of Will's who lives in another state. She LOVES them and says she literally locks herself in the bathroom to eat them all herself. I feel good just sending them to her and she thanked me by sending a bag full of lollipops to me. It was such a sweet gesture but now all I hear is, "mommy, can I have a lollipop?" It's enough to make me "lose" them for good. The blue tongue is the result of the sweet tooth.