lskdhlkhdflh :):):)

This is the text my little boy sent me this morning from his daddy's phone. or something close, anyways. I definitely remember the smileys, because I definitely remember thinking "how on earth did he figure out how to do that??".

I'm sorry we've been AWOL for awhile...let's just say we had, *ahem*, a visitor (nastily disgusting stomach flu) at our house for about 10 days....somehow my husband managed to avoid it (I'm almost ready to admit that there's really something to all the green tea he drinks...almost) but the kiddos and I all had it. I was hit the hardest, thank goodness, because I would never want my littles to feel like that-I called my mom in for the day because I could hardly get out of bed. SO thankful she's in town for times like that! And, you know, general grandbaby spoiling.

B's birthday party was fun...her birthday was fun...and now we officially have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old :) and I'm remembering just how much I LOVE toddlerhood. Seriously--babyhood is sweet and cuddly and snuggly (and foggy); but I adore when my kiddos start walking and then running and playing games and talking more and more and, most importantly perhaps, sleeping really really well for more than a week at a time. I keep remembering all the fun things about Pax's toddler days; and I'm loving B's little personality emerging more each day. Each stage is seriously more fun than the last!

But all this growing-up has some serious thoughts floating around in my head about parenthood...and parenting...and being an adult...and accepting aging and life gracefully, joyfully, just plain fully! We've had some good discussions lately, that husband of mine and I...maybe someday soon I'll let you in on it. For now, let's just say we're grasping (probably for the millionth time) a bit more of what it means to parent our children WELL-the enormousness of it all. The forever-ness of it all. Or at least the until-they-get-married-ness of it. Not saying our kids are perfect (if you know them, you know they're simply human) or that we're perfect (if you know us, you know we're simply human, too) or that the way we parent is perfect (it isn't-and we also keep changing things about the way we parent as we get to know our kids' personalities). It's just a huge, beautiful responsibility we want to continue to dive into with joy, a little discipline, and a LOT of help from God.

Adam started a new semester today...the semester in which he will take his GRE and start applying for schools. Which is huge and so exciting and I'm totally stoked to go visit some potential new towns when he gets called for interviews (because, yes, I am praying that he WILL get interviews the first time around, and, more than that, that he'll get INTO a school the first time around). It also means once again re-adjusting our life for his schedule. I think we're getting pretty good at it :)

...my mind is going in eighty-five thousand different directions right now...once I get things sorted out I'll be back. For now-since it IS Thankful Thursday-I'll leave you with a few pictures of the ones I'm so very thankful for today.truly, my mom made last week so, so much easier on me..also, Blythe's party wouldn't have been nearly as pretty without her :)SO thankful I get to do life with this guy. He's pretty fantastic. Plus, I'm quite thankful that I WASN'T giving birth again yesterday!

Oh, and on my list of accomplishments for today? Working out HARD for the 4th day in a row (see ya, baby weight!) and "bandaging" a certain 1-year-old's cut finger with superglue. Pretty proud of that one, I gotta say :)