Judah Barracuda is 10 Months Old!

Can you believe it? My little Judah Bear is getting so big! He is the sweetest little chub of a boy and I am so thankful he is part of our family. He is funny and cuddly and is fairly certain he can do anything his big brother can do. All it takes to make him happy is his thumb and his lovey. He says, "Mama," and actually prefers me, in contrast to Daddy's boy, Asher. (Don't get me wrong though--when Daddy gets home from work, there is much rejoicing by ALL of us!)

Jude has gorgeous, curly, sandy-blonde hair.



And legs that are so sweet and delicious I may just eat them up one day.



He also has a big brother that loves him to pieces. They light up when they see each other in the morning and play together all day long. They can get a little rough with each other(yes, both of them!) but when I see them giving kisses or sharing snacks, my heart just melts.

I think Asher's shirt sums it up well...



It's been a good 10 months with the little guy. May the Lord allow us many, many more.

Wordless Wednesday

Latest Organization Project

After ramming a stack of boxes with the ol' minivan a few times too many, I decided it was high time to restore some order to this region of the garage. These boxes were full of the things I kept from my classroom teaching days. I knew some of it would be useful for homeschooling, but I really needed to go through it and consolidate it to just a few boxes. The rest of the mess is old newspapers, diaper boxes, and shoes.



Ahhhh...I can breathe now. I feel sorry for the people that are never messy or disorganized enough to let things degenerate this badly because they miss out on the feeling you get when you finally clean the mess up.

At least that's the story I'm going with.

Reinacting Jaws

This is the shark tent. It is the source of hours of fun in this house. But it is huge and our house is not so we can't leave it out. Oh, but when we do the good times that are had!

Even Daddy couldn't resist the lure of the shark tent.



The lot in life of the little brother.



No biggie. Didn't want to go in that dumb tent anyway.

Rock On

These boys take after their Daddy and their Poppy--a guitar is always close by. It seems all day long, someone has some instument in their hands playing a song. Jude has even taken to searching out the drumsticks so he can beat them together as he sings. They both enjoy composing their own tunes--Asher just sang me a sweet little diddy about blowing on your oatmeal when it's too hot. I think it was his best one today.

Moms' Night Out

In lieu of our usual Friday playdates with our kiddos, some friends and I decided to do a "P.M. Playdate." This may be one of the best ideas we have ever had in our entire lives.

The five of us, Kathy, Chris, Bethany, Misty, and me, had so much fun getting to chit-chat and--get this--finish each sentence we began! A rare thing indeed.

We went to Chuy's for dinner and ate our combined weight in creamy jalepeno sauce. We also were the recipients of a free appetizer. Seeing the picture of us above, you are probably wondering to yourself, "Is it because they were the most beautiful group of ladies there last night?" Good guess, but no.

As it happened, Kris, Asher, Jude and I were at Chuy's the night before because Kris really wanted to go there and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I would be dining there with the girls the very next evening.

Whilst dining, I noticed a sign that read "Bring in a framed picture of your dog and receive a free appetizer." We don't actually have a dog per se but my parents do so I figured that was close enough.

But I don't actually have a picture of their dog. So I printed one out off Google images--same breed. I figured that was close enough. And we just happened to have a frame that no longer had glass in it that fit the picture perfectly that I had been meaning to throw away. Evidently, I was providentially hindered from doing so.

And I brought that picture to Chuy's, gave it to our waiter, and asked for the most expensive appetizer on the menu! I told him the dog's name was Heidi, which I had named the dog in picture on my way to Chuy's in honor of one of my parent's boxers who is no longer with us. He brought me a sharpie so that I could sign the picture and it is now displayed proudly on the wall of Chuy's on 59 North.

They have a random picture to hang on their wall and we got free food. Everyone went home a winner.

Remember When...

My camera is in my diaper bag which is the the car which in the garage which seems like a long way to travel right now. It's not that our house is that big, it's just that I'm that lazy.

So I thought a little flashback would be a good substitute. Here's little Asher one year ago. He was a carefree 16 month old that had no clue about how is world was going to be rocked in just a few short months. A good "rocked" of course.

Incidentally, the outfit Asher is wearing, Jude wears now. Both boys are in size 4 diapers and both wear 18 month shorts. Impressive, huh?

Lord willing, some current pictures and witty banter will follow soon.

The Dénouement of Metallic Shoe Saga '09

Thank you to all of you who cast your virtual ballot in what some have called the most important vote of our time. All of your input was considered and I now know, that in my time of need, I have some true-blue friends that I can count on. I also have some nameless readers of my blog who are willing to take two seconds out of their day to make a selection. That touches my heart as well.

The wearing of metallics is a personal choice that every woman must make for herself. I do like them and I agree with several of you that they work as a neutral and can be paired with many things. But Lis hit the nail on the head when she brought up the fact that if you don't absolutely love something, then it isn't worth your time or money. And something about the fact that I felt the need to post a survey on my blog hints at the possibility that I might not be truly sold on them.

So back to Target they went. As I told Mandy last night during our legnthy Facebook chat on this very subject, no one can accuse me of not trying.

I'm all for branching out, but it has to be the right thing at the right time, or it's actually a wrong thing trying to act like it's the right thing. And that's just wrong, right?

Do We Like These?

Go here to view and then cast your vote. Consider it your good deed for the day.

And feel free to leave a comment to elaborate on your vote. And no reverse-psychology voting...please do not mess with my head at a time like this.