Anatomy by Abbie Grace

So, along the line of the "frinkles" post...one of my all time favorite things that Abbie has ever said was "foot knuckle." As in...
"MOM!!!" crying and yelling.
"What, Abbie? What's wrong?" says Tracie.
"I hurt myself." Sniff, sniff as she says this.
"Well, where did you hurt yourself, hon?" asks Mom.
"Right here," she says pointing to her ankle "on my foot knuckle."

Yeah, the compassion that followed only came after I doubled over and tried to hide my laughter. Gotta love these days!

Brie at the Fire Department

Fire Fighter Durham, Jr.

Brie and Dad on Engine 1

Breaker, Breaker, Come On Back

A couple of weeks ago, Brie and I stopped by the Fire Station to visit Phillip. He let her climb around the truck and pretend that she was on the headset. It was so cute. She's quite the little fire groupie!

Frinkles

My girls say really funny things from time to time. Sometimes I know where they come from and other times, I have no idea but either way, they make me giggle. Last night Brie had a milk shake from Dixie Cafe (a favorite place) and it came with sprinkles on top. She was holding it on the way to the car (yes, it had a lid) and it got too cold to carry so she handed it to me. When I was putting her in the car, she looked at me with her serious face and said, "Momma, don't fill my frinkles!" Which translated means, Momma, don't spill my sprinkles. It was so cute. Right up there with her phrase to start all of us out the door, Let's Rock and Roll! (That she got from her Daddy...)

Aubrie's Easter Bunny

Aubrie by the Bunny

Aubrie's Bunny

Aubrie was walking with her Daddy and I in the yard today when we found a baby bunny! It was so tiny! We are hoping that we will be able to show Abbie when she gets home from school. What a great find on our Easter weekend!

Fancy Abbie

Fancy Abbie

Fancy Abbie, Poet Extraordinaire and her helper!

Yesterday was "Be Your Favorite Book Character" Day at Crestwood. Abbie chose to be Fancy Nancy from Fancy Nancy, Poet Extraordinaire. We had originally wanted to be Nancy from Posh Puppy but she just got the Poet book this week so it was more fun, apparently. So, yesterday we got up and got to work on her ensemble. We teased her hair so it would look more like Nancy's and wrapped her in a toga just like Nancy is wearing on the cover of the book. (The toga was a white table cloth, I had to talk her out of using my good blanket that I keep on the couch, she was slightly disappointed until she saw that the tablecloth had some lace on it). We added a crown to her hair and beads and she looked beautiful! She wore her toga all day long, even on the playground. Great Day, Great School! (Note in the pictures that Brie is still in her PJ's. There wasn't time to get me decent for public view, Abbie all fancied up and Brie dressed. Nothing like an exciting morning in the Durham house!!)

Easter Egg Hunt at MDO

Aubrie Faith, 2 1/2 years old
Hunting for Eggs

In front of the MDO sign

Full Basket!

Aubrie went to her first official Easter Egg hunt yesterday at MDO. Last year she was just too little to really "get" the idea of the hunt but this year, she got it! I had so much fun watching her run around at her sweet little school. We LOVE her MDO. It was absolutely wonderful. (First Baptist Church of Sherwood) Great teachers and administrators! We got there just before the kids were ready to start the hunt. We had to walk through the playground to get to the door so Brie saw the eggs around and was so excited! We lined up with her class and they attacked the playground with some speed. There were eggs flying all over the place. She had a great time filling up her basket and when she maxed out her basket it was off to the playground where she played on everything. She can climb up everything (steps and bars...and the slide) and go down all if it too. It's amazing to see how big she has gotten this year. She is fearless on that playground! It was a great day and a great way to kick off our Easter weekend!

Kickin' It

Aubrie, Abbie Grace, Kennedy Grace and Colson

Kennedy and Abbie chasing the team

Abbie, Kickin' It

Nearing the Goal...

Sometimes God just blesses our socks off and I have to tell you about how He did it this time for our family. Over the summer I decided that I should sign Abbie up for soccer. Now, mind you, when I decided to do this it was the end of July. Having NEVER done anything with this sport, I had no idea that they would have already signed up for fall soccer. So I call Sherwood to find that they had filled up and were not even thinking about having a waiting list. So I called Lakewood and talked to the nicest man, Ken Sullivan, who put us on a waiting list for another soccer team if they had enough players and coaches. I called on a Monday in August and on Thursday we had a team! Blessing right? Yep, huge blessing and we were so excited. We went right out and found pink cleets (is that with a "K" or a "C", I have no idea...seriously I know nothing about soccer...) and pink shin guards. We know all of one person (Kennedy Grace, one of Abbie's best friends) who plays with the Lakewood team and she signed up months in advance for Fall soccer. I did NOT want to push the limits of decency and ask for Abbie to be put on her little friends team so we just were excited about meeting new friends and getting to know something about a new sport. So, Abbie, Brie and I show up for our 1st soccer practice and we have no clue what we are supposed to do or where we are supposed to go. We wander around aimlessly and as we were wandering, we see the Burkett's, the one family we know who plays soccer up there. I decide to humble myself and check my "I can figure this out" prideful self and ask them if they would recognize Coach Hopkins so they might point us in the right direction. Well we walk over and they look shocked to see us and Kennedy and Abbie hug each other like they hadn't just seen each other at church two days before. I ask if they know the coach and they look at me like I might be crazy and say, "yes, that's Kennedy's coach!" At this moment, the coach comes over and says "this must be Abbie Grace." I nearly fell over! I mean, never in my wildest dreams did I think that Abbie would end up on a team with her friend. In fact it was so far from what I considered a possibility that I didn't even pray about it. It just felt too selfish to pray for. I never want to approach God like He is some kind of magical genie who will grant whatever wish I ask of Him. This just felt so ridiculous to ask for so I prayed instead for Abbie to easily make friends with the kids that she was placed on a team with. Never did it enter my mind that God would take that wildest dream and make it come true! That's what is just overwhelming to me and it is so consistent with the character of God. He is so big and so intimate. He knows the desires of our hearts, probably even better than we do, and His desire is to bless us. I just have to praise Him for how He knew my heart and my desire to have Abbie know someone on her team. I know this sounds so trivial but that is what God has taught me so much about this year. He is a God who is so big; He created the universe and causes all of us to be and yet, He is so small and intimate that He blesses us in ways that are intensely personal and specific to our needs. Do you know Him like that? If you don't and you want to, ask me about it. I would love to share with you just how much you are loved, because you ARE! He loves you just like He loves me and loves my daughter. Enough to carry me through this summer as a single parent and experience blessing after blessing and enough to put Abbie in the one team that has a forever friend in it. What an awesome God!