The Stack is GONE

Well, it's gone from our house, at least. Jeff mailed it in today--a day EARLY. He stayed up until 4:30 a.m. last night (well, this morning) and had to be up before 6 to go to school. He worked on finishing the National Board stuff every spare minute today, and he managed to get it mailed in on his way home.

He is currently celebrating all the late nights and early mornings with blueberry donuts, popcorn, and Mountain Dew. So Jeff...

I am very proud of him, and also very glad he doesn't have this looming over his head anymore. Yea, Jeff! I'll bet he gets good sleep tonight in spite of all that Mountain Dew...

The Stack

This picture sums up Jeff's life lately. I call it "the stack," and I keep finding it at various places around the house, sometimes organized neatly, and sometimes spread out over the floor of a whole room.

Jeff is working on his National Board teaching certification, and it takes A LOT of time and energy. My dad got his several years ago, and I remember him sitting in the living room floor until past midnight working feverishly. It has been a similar story around here lately. Lots of late nights and hard work on Jeff's part. I'm proud of him, and all of us will be relieved when "the stack" is mailed in to be reviewed on THURSDAY. Whew!

Miller Man at 2.5

Maggie has gotten her fair share of posts lately with soccer and singing and what not, so I thought I'd do a post just for our little man and record some of our favorite things about him right now.

Miller is a doll. And I'm not just saying that because he's mine (maybe I'm a little biased). He gives hugs and kisses constantly and just has the cutest little grin and the most precious way of saying things.

I love hearing Miller's vocabulary explode and hearing how he chooses to put words together to make complete thoughts. For instance, when he wants something, he says, "You get that for me, pleeease." (The "please" is a 50/50 thing. He's actually pretty good about it for his age.) And he hardly ever forgets to say "thank you!," at the top of his lungs, of course. (He says everything pretty much at the top of his lungs. Our children know no volume control.)

I also love that Miller enjoys playing with his sister. They play with toys and pretend, and have just started playing more organized games like hide-and-go-seek (He's pretty hilarious counting to three and saying, "I come geeet yooou!"). He makes four or five syllables out of every word. Cracks me up!

Miller is a fun-loving guy. When we pick him up from his class at church, nine times out of ten, his teachers will say something like, "Miller just has the most fun!" At first I wondered if this meant he was having fun kicking other children or stealing their snacks, but watching him play at home, I really see what they mean. He is full of life and is so enthusiastic about whatever he is doing, whether it be playing, eating, or jumping off the toybox. :-)

Speaking of eating...Miller always has some sort of food on hand and going into his mouth. It's part of who he is. He can constantly be seen with a bag of Doritos, a handful of peanut butter crackers--you get the picture. His favorite meal food is scrambled eggs. He goes to the fridge several times a day and asks for them. He also likes Toy Story Mac and Cheese. We're working on some meal alternatives.

Mills is on his way to being potty-trained. He decided a few weeks ago that he wanted to give the potty a try, and he will pretty much go whenever we take him. He wears a pull-up because I'm not ready for the accidents that come along with big boy underwear, but we're going to make the big leap soon and get rid of the daytime pull-ups.

Our little guy loves all things pink. Yep, you read correctly. I'm assuming this comes from having an older sister. You can see in the above pictures that he's holding Maggie's Hello Kitty ear muffs. This is so hilarious because he's such a little rough-and-tough tank, and his favorite color, exclaimed very loudly, is "PINK!" We dressed him in camouflage the other day, and he later walked into the living room wearing a pink tu-tu of Maggie's. We're taking lots of pictures and can't wait to share them when he's older...

He is just learning to sing, which I LOVE. He has pretty good pitch and can do an adorable rendition of the "ABC's," "Jesus Loves Me,Me,Me," and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." He also still sings "Mr. Turkey" daily. It's one of his favorites.

Of course, this age does not come without its share of struggles. Miller can throw an award-winning fit (still not quite like the ones his sister threw when she was his age), and he can be seen frequently squabbling with Maggie or with his buddy Colby. But that's all part of it.

We love our little 2.5-year-old and could not feel more blessed to have him!

This Little Light of Mine

A very interesting rendition

Norrises at the Zoo

Jeff's parents, his brother Thad, and our niece Hallie came to visit last weekend, and we went to the zoo! All three kids had a blast, and we loved getting to hang out with Jeff's family. Here are a few pictures...Pretty much all of them are of Miller and Hallie holding hands. They must love each other!
Hehe...how cute is this?
Miller was so happy to see Hallie. When I look at this picture, I wonder if he will be tall like his Daddy and Uncle Thad.
Riding the train...and still holding hands. :-)

The Hornets Attack

Maggie had her first soccer game today (well, two games--a double header!). As promised, it was pretty funny. Some of the usual humor was taken away because the referee made the kids stay in bounds, and they weren't kicking the ball two fields over like they do in practice.

Maggie's team is the Hornets, and they played the Yellowjackets and the Grasshoppers. They pretty much dominated (ha!). I'm thinking the Hornets are a little older than the other teams. Mags scored two goals! We were proud, but more importantly, she had fun! (Right?!)I loved watching the kids work together, high-five each other, and cheer for their teammates. I so look forward to Saturday mornings for the next few weeks.

Here are a few pics from this morning. I 'm also including pictures of the neighborhood kids playing over the past few days. It already feels like summer around here with everyone outside. I love it!

Alex observing as Shelby and Maggie inspect their drawstrings

Sizing up the competition...They kept saying, "Look at those Yellowjackets!"

Maggie and Alex before the games

Maggie and Cooper high-fiving each other. These were some happy Hornets!
Maggie and Karma waiting on their turn to play
Good game, Yellowjackets!
Miss Mags singing a "rock 'n roll" song
The lighting is bad in this picture, but I love it for a few reasons. First, we love having all the neighborhood kids playing outside together (although I think we're missing a few in this picture). Second, Scott (standing by the UPS truck) had ordered a new cell phone for Margaret, and he flagged the UPS man down as he was passing our house and asked if he was delivering the phone to their house. (I love being in a neighborhood where you can do things like this.) Third, don't you know that UPS man was terrified of all the wild monkeys (I mean children) running around in our yard? And I don't love this, but Jeff in this picture pretty much illustrates what the pollen is doing to all of us...

Happy Saturday!

New Mercies

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

This verse has been on my mind all week. And no wonder—I needed it big time.

Have you ever seen a child throw a fit? A huge, gi-normous, record-setting, hysterical fit? Both of mine did yesterday. Whoa.

I have been trying to keep the kids up through naptime this week because Jeff has all of his National Board Teaching Certification stuff due next week, and I’ve wanted to put the children to bed early so he could get work done. Plan=fail. They haven’t been sleeping well, and yesterday, things broke down around here.

We attempted a playground trip. I told the kids we were going to make a couple of laps around the park with the stroller, and their reward for good behavior was getting to play. Good deal…everyone seemed to be in agreement…until Miller really understood what was going on. As soon as he saw the stroller come out of the trunk, he started whining “plaaayground.” I reminded him of the deal. He got louder. I buckled him into the stroller. Even louder. Tried to walk for about a minute. Louder.

We packed up the stroller and went home. Took fifteen minutes for me to get the double stroller squeezed back into the trunk. Miller screamed the whole way home. I felt horribly for the way the trip turned out, but I could not reward the fit. He slept for a while when we got home, so that was obviously the problem.

After Miller’s nap, we went outside to play and then decided to go to Momma Goldberg’s with Scott, Margaret, Colby, and Maggie’s new friend Emma. Emma and Maggie just love each other and wanted to ride together, so we moved Maggie’s seat to the middle of the backseat. Maggie got upset because she didn’t have a clear, look-straight-ahead view to her tv in the car. So she started crying. (Really?)

It was one of those fits where she began to stray from the original cause. She started screaming, “I…want…to…go…home…and…watch…Wow…Wow…Wubbzyyyyyy!” Tears streaming down her face, gagging, the whole nine yards. She was not being kind. We got to the restaurant, and after two long trips to the restroom with her, Jeff got her calmed down (He’s truly magic). Our Maggie was back. Not sure who that other child was…

At bedtime, I was exhausted and discouraged (We all were). But, whew, am I thankful for the Lord’s ever-renewed love and compassion. And I said a special prayer this morning that he would help me have that same compassion with my family today. That I can be forgiving, patient, and kind.

So thankful for a new day. Off to enjoy it...