We are sneaking away for....

a little bit of this with the famous Coach Tom, 

for some celebration of sweet Kingston who will be turning 1 and will also be getting baptized,

and finally off to the north Georgia mountains for some r&r.

See you sometime in the middle of June.

"Alder the Barbarian"

This is my little barbarian. We threw this little nickname around when he was first born and now I am thinking of bringing it back. 

When he was born we quickly noticed this on the small of his back just above his bottom. We were told by both the doctors and Jared's mother that the Mongolian spot was completely normal....for dark-skinned children or ethnic babies. 

We assume that Alder inherited this from his great-grandfather's side of the family, the DeMoss family, who are Greek. In fact, Jared's grandfather was the first generation born in America after his mother and father fled from their homeland and immigrated to America through Ellis Island. Interesting story. 

Anyways, Alder has this spot and since it is "passed" down through Mediterranean blood, "Alder the Barbarian" just makes sense. I would like to take credit for the name except we have family friends who have a son with such a mark and came up with "Sumner the Barbarian" for him years ago. I am not quite sure if the spot has anything to how fearless, bold, intense, or wild Alder is but I like to think it does. Supposedly his Uncle Jackie had one when he was born. Enough said.

He runs ridiculously fast for being 2 (so we are told) and he is obsessed with exploring.

And climbing (which is so boy anyways) but we had to convince him to take the stick out of his mouth (looking like a dog) before he could run, jump, or climb the fallen trees.

My little barbarian, what will you be like when you grow-up?

Rebecca

This beautiful woman is my dearest friend. She is wise, patient, generous, full of love, quiet, calm spirited, and a wonderful mother and wife. We could not be more opposite from each other. Rebecca is full of grace and virtuous in every way. I am blessed to have such a dear friend. She is wife to an amazingly Godly man, who has an out-of-this world testimony and if I was not falling asleep (I slept a total of an hour and  half) as I write this I would share it with you. I WILL be back with that story.  

Erik is also a gifted doctor who just delivered their 8th child this morning at 3:33 am. That is right...8 children! I was there through the whole process and was able to take some wonderful pictures of Rebecca, Erik, and their beautiful, healthy baby boy. 

What a blessing it is the gift of children! Praise be to the Lord for such gifts! I honestly think of my little boys like that every single day. Maybe it because I tried for months to get pregnant or I see how (through the life of my Down Syndrome brother) it is such a miracle to have a healthy child. I am so undeserving of such wonderful and "perfect" little boys. 

Thank you Lord for such rich blessings in my life and in Rebecca's. 

The 8th One.

Sterrett James 

8lbs. 1oz. 19 1/2 in. 

born May 19th at 3:33 am.

Because learning to pee is easy....

its just the pulling up of the pants AND underwear that will get ya......

Water Babies, Roomies, and Cousins

My boys love love love water. They just simply cannot get enough of it. I realized this when I paid our water bill yesterday and it was $10 higher than it had been then the month before (due to of course playing outside with the hose, sprinkler, and splash pad (which then leads to dirty boys and this leads to more water use)). We will find out shortly how much Alder really loves water when we start swim lessons in just two weeks. These are not just any swim lessons. These are swim lessons on speed. They are taught by "Coach Tom" everyday for 8 days at 30 minutes per session. He has a very unique philosophy on children and swimming. It is kind of a "throw them in the water and they will eventually learn to hold their breath" kind of theory. I am sorry. That does not do it justice. He is (from what I have heard) very gifted at this whole swimming thing and I look forward to seeing how Alder does. Kind of cool though to think about having a 2 year old swimming this summer! Trust me. I am not crazy. I watched my 2 2 year old niece/nephew swim (for real swim) all last summer. I will let you know how it goes.

On the subject of making messes, I thought I would add this. I want to think that Alder, who knows messing with Ally's food and water are a major NO-NO is telling Kingston all about how bad a spanking hurts. I am sure he wasn't though.

I am happy to say though that these two partners in crime are now sharing the same room. We moved Kingston in with Alder a week ago. It really has been an easy transition, but I wish you could hear them at night trying to fall asleep. We can watch them on the monitor and see Kingston with his face pressed against the crib bars with an outstretched hand trying to reach his brother. We have caught Alder on several occassions trying to throw items from his crib into Kingston's. Funniest thing. In the mornings, I wake up to them just laughing and giggling together. I must say, it really has helped their little relationship. I think Alder just sees him now as older and not so much a little baby. Dada has even said that Alder no longer wants to cuddle up with him, rock, and pray for long periods of time because he is just so antsy to get in his crib and "play" with King King. 

And finally, we had cousins visit last week. Teddy and Wilder came to play. For some reason I do not have that many pictures, but I thought these were cute. After bath time both nights the water had a definite dirty color to it. How do boys manage to get so so messy? All four of them (age 3 and under) played and played. It is very sweet to see that even as young as they are, all the cousins seem to understand that cousins are special and different than just the friend at school or neighbor down the street. Alder was so excited when they arrived, he just kept screaming at the top of his lungs over and over and over again. We didn't do much and had no agenda. We ate, played, walked, threw rocks into the river, talked, ate some more, and ran through the sprinkler.

Wilder is 22 1/2 months, Kingston is 11 months, Teddy is 3, and Alder is 2. Wow! And Beth is due to have another one in November. 

"Messmaker, Messmaker, Find me a mess......"

While this one was making this mess outside, the other little one was making that mess inside. Oh me. 

I never do stop cleaning up their little messes. Yes, I get tired of bending over and picking it all up, putting it back in place, and then doing it all over again several times a day. It is tiring, but I learn so much about them as I clean up their little messes. Sounds strange, I know. 

As I clean up Alder's I can see his sheer intensity strewn about in the mess. I can see the focus he had in dismantling the parts and pieces. I can see where he did not stop to notice the world around him. I can see the passion. I can see how quickly it must have taken him and how frustrated he felt when an object did not bounce, fall, or hit the right way. 

As a mother I guess it is just kind of normal to notice these intimate details about the children that grew inside of you for 9 months, that nursed at your breast for months and months, that you spend 12+ hours a day with, and that you love with every ounce of your being.

I can tell in the messes that King King makes that he is slow. He is slow and calculated. He picks up every piece, every part and examines it. He will often rub it to his face (be it hard or soft) as if he is really trying to get to know it, its purpose, and its smell. King King can disappear into "dark corners" of the house quietly and make messes for the longest time. When I go to find him, call his name, and find him he often looks up at me, points his finger at me, and then looks back down at his "work". He has no interest in me picking him up and entertaining him. He is busy and so I leave him alone. I realize that although these antics of my little fellows may drive me batty they are learning so much, creating their own play, and their brains are just firing away in those precious heads of theirs.

WARNING: Materialistic Post Below

I really am NOT a clothes shoppers (I am sure my sister-n-laws, if reading this, are not believing such a statement, but it is really true.) I love clothes, but you have to have money to buy them and they really look best when you are not pregnant or covered in milk stains from nursing (sorry for the visual). So I admire them from a far and buy them when I have to (like weddings and the like), but I saw this dress when I was getting my hair cut today and instantly fell in love with it. I mean look at it. Its gorgeous. I love the sleeves, the "flowy-ness" of it, and the colors. I usually am not a flower person as far as clothes go but this is so delicately done. It looks like an impressionistic painting. The dress comes from H&M and I love the store, but the closest one to me is 4 hours away. H&M does not sell online and they do not take phone orders. What???? If I was the person in charge of H&M that would be my first objective: online shopping. 

Well, I came home and called the Atlanta store and she said that they sold out of it and for me to call H&M customer service in New York(which I was glad to do rather than my chores while the boys slept). I did and the lady told me that THIS dress sold out all across America on the first day it arrived into stores (March 23rd). She also told me (once again) that even if she did have it I could NOT buy it over the phone. What??? I still do not understand. They could make so much MORE money! Those European socialist need to get on the ball. 

Anywho, I am so crazy about this dress and I am going to search for it on Ebay, Craigslist, and send out an SOS on Facebook for it. Ok, really, I am NOT going to do (you can buy it now for $40 on Ebay) that because my life is so full of other things that are so much more important than the longing for material things such as this. It is fun to dream though. Check out the entire collection here and if you live close to an H&M-go shopping!

I love you dress even though I will never wear you. 

Drumroll Please.....

Meet Stephen. 

He delivered the veg/fruit boxes yesterday with a smile on his face and full of excitement about his "new clients".

The boxes were all full of these wonderful veggies and sweet, yummy strawberries. We ALL enhaled the green beans last night and still have enough for a meal later this week. And today at our picnic in the park, my boys gobbled up the strawberries. They both had looks on their faces like, "Mama, where did you get these?" They ate and ate and ate them until there was nothing but juice left in the container.

We have new potatoes, squash, broc., cucumbers, and lettuce still to enjoy. First reviews so far: money well spent.

Meet Alder's "girlfriends".

These sweet girls are neighborhood girls who are always playing at Sarah D's house (she is bottom right). Sarah D lives two houses down from us and we LOVE Sarah D. She is certainly like Alder's big sister and she has such sweet friends too. Alder clearly loves the attention and is carried around by them like he is a little prince. 

And finally, meet Alder's bestfriend.

I know Ally has made it onto the blog before, but she has never been formally introduced. She is undoubtedly Alder's best friend, favorite playmate, and his favorite "toy." She will entertain him for hours (really its more like minutes, but when I can get "mommy jobs" done around the house without Alder standing at my feet begging me to hold him-it feels like hours.) and the two of them will play and play in the front yard together. She has the patience of Job. After every meal Alder will say, "get down and let Ally in, eat food." So we let him down, he lets her in, she cleans up the floor. The other day I was out in the yard with Alder, Kingston, and Ally and I looked over and Alder had a stick in his mouth just like Ally did. Funniest thing. When it storms badly and thunders (which she is terrified of) Ally will disappear (after Jared and I don't pander to her crying) and we will find her snuggled up in front of the door to Alder's room. Ally B (we affectionately call her that) is 4 years old and was born just 4 houses up the road. Ally B is currently teaching Alder responsibility as it is his job to feed her each day. She really couldn't be a more perfect dog. She doesn't even shed. I often say that I am not a dog person, but just an Ally person. She is irreplaceable. 

A good moral decision: becoming a passionate locavore

While living in England, we received a box of veggies and fruits from Riverford Farms. Over the last several years, Riverford's home delivery of locally grown AND organic fruit and vegetables has become insanely popular all across England. The box (chosen according to your needs/family size) gets dropped off at your door and all the veggies are covered in dirt. That is how fresh they are. Riverford claims that from the time they pick the veggies and you get them at your door is only about 2 days. Wow! I will say they tasted so good-unusually good! I guess that is organic for ya. Riverford also is CHEAPER than shopping in the local grocery stores in England. Could this be the case here?    

Anyways, when we moved back I wanted to try to find something like that here in the States. It has taken about 2 1/2 years, but tomorrow I will receive my first veg/fruit box from GROWALABAMA.com. I had contacted them back in the summer of 2008 when we first moved back to Demopolis in hopes that maybe GROW ALABAMA delivered close to our area. They did not, but said that if I could get 10 people/families signed up then they would drive down here once a week and deliver organic, locally grown fruits and veggies (they have fresh farm eggs too!) Well I tried and the idea pretty much fell on deaf ears except for my only other hippy friend (love ya Amanda) and so I just forgot about. Then for reasons unknown, friends started to mention it to me several weeks ago. "Did you know about this company that delivers fresh fruits and veggies?" YES! "Do you want to do it if we can get enough people?" YES, YES! So after several emails, phone calls, and work with my good friend Bets....WE DID IT! We have 13 committed people for a GROW ALABAMA delivery. 

Aren't those tomatoes beautiful? And look at those chicken below. They look so happy and free(I am told the fence around them is for protection from predators). I cannot wait to slice the tomatoes up and eat the eggs from these happy chickens. More importantly, I cannot wait to feed my family such great food AND support local farmers of Alabama and the Southeast. I cannot really explain why we all should eat locally grown produce. I have all these passionate feelings about why we should do it, but I have yet to construct a concise argument and I do not have time today as I have a mountain of ironing to do! Uggh! But, if you are curious please click on some of the video clips from both GROWALABAMA.com and Riverford Farms. I think both of the founders (even though one company is all the way across the pond) do a good job of explaining why we should all become locavores. Happy Hump Day to all of you!

Nothing In Particular

Ok, (not to take away from the last post) but we have dubbed Kingston with a new name. He is now called on a very frequent basis "The Mess Maker." Alder was not like this at all (probably because I was holding him ALL THE TIME and he did not want to be put down). It fascinates me how quickly Kingston can move from one area of the house to the next TRYING to find things to dismantle, tear up, pull apart, and unfold. You get the idea. If you look closely in the picture, you can see him crawling away quickly with a smirk on his face in search of the next place to "be conquered." 

***Alder had absolutely nothing to do with this mess(because he was most likely following me around the house as I did morning odd jobs saying, "Mama hold you, MAMA, HOLD YOU, MAMA HOOOOLLLLLDDDD YOU!!! Not much has changed with that one) and just simply sat down in the middle of the mess quite amazed at the accomplishments of his younger brother.

I took this picture real quick last week while preparing lunch for my children because I realized a few things while staring down at this cut board.

1. I can understand why my grocery bill must be so high and how my husband wants to pull his hair out every month due to this fact. I mean fresh food is just so dang expensive. But we are suppose to eat healthy and feed our children the best of the best. How though financially? We spend more on produce than meat every week. How much do you say you spend on produce each week? Curious to compare. 

2. I feel pretty confident that this picture indicates an overall "style of eating" for my children: lots of fresh, whole foods (even though most are not organic because I only have a Wal-Mart to shop at) and nothing processed (except of course the occassional chicken nugget Happy Meal from MickeyD's, the VERY occassional Happy Meal). And so if this is true and my children eat so well, please tell me that they are going to have a leg up on other children as they grow, mature, kick a soccer ball, and possibly even ace algebra due in part to such a wonderful diet??? I am being rather sarcastic here, but its worth it right? Even if we end up living in a cardboard box from the expense of groceries???

3. When I am feeling like the worst Mama in the whole world and that I could do so much more for my children then I just need to look at this picture. It proves that I am, at least, trying to do my best. 

4. I never knew that blackberries has such a interesting and beautiful inside until I starting cutting them up for my 10 month old. You learn something new everyday. 

This is my husband with his "rollie fingers" mustache and other such absurd and insanely unattractive facial hair, but again, I still love the man. I mean you have to say, it says something about a man who can so confidently walk around with such a mustache on his face. By the way, this is the greatest bike in the world for children. It is called a balance bike and we saw them all over Europe when we lived there. The kids all had them there and it teaches balance quickly with no need ever for a bike with training wheels. You can see all about them here.

And finally, my husband, the artist. (Notice he is clean shaven in the picture above. Thank the Lord.)

On Sunday at one of the local historical homes, there was an art show of local artists called "Canvases and Melodies." It was a lovely day full of sunshine, wind, live music, and all sorts of various types of art being displayed. I never knew there were so many talented artists in this rural town and it was rather impressive. We took a picnic and watched Dada hang the art, compete with the gusts of wind, and chit chat with all the admirers as they came by. I do get a great kick out of Jared's bio shown below. It just cracks me up. His brother wrote it for the hospital art show back in the October. I mean really? Nautical hull design as a hobby.

Mama's Little Helpers

I have quite the little helpers around the house. I mean look at these two working very hard at cleaning the floors. Kingston seemed to have found time to pose for a picture (although his red eyes make him look possessed) and then quickly got back to work supervising his brother, making sure Alder got every last crumb. 

Who needs Merry Maids when you have these two? 

A Scrumptious Dinner

I am still editing and uploading my Easter/Chattanooga visit pictures and hopefully will get those up soon. 
But I wanted to share one of my hubby's favorite dinner recipes. It comes from the Chattanooga Junior League Cookbook and its super simple to make, at least my modified version is. It originally says to saute the chicken breasts, flip them over, then remove from pan, saute other ingredients, and then return them into the pan to finish cooking. I just cannot stand over the stove like this will little ones at my feet, so I saute the chicken, added the remaining ingredients, and then stick it in the oven. I covered it with foil though to keep it moist and cooked it on 350 degrees for 30 mins. There is no sub for the sherry and I always add a little more W. sauce and sherry than it calls for. Chicken Simplicity is simply delicious. 

Friday Night Excitement and Springtime Nakedness

We all just about flip when Friday afternoon finally arrives and Dada comes home from work and we get him all to ourselves for the whole weekend. Alder tells me that he cannot wait to "hvee Dada all day" and "hvee Dada's pancakes." It really is a wonderful thing to have such a wonderful husband and father except for the facial hair he has grown, but we won't talk about that. Ok, currently, my husband is sporting a wretched beard and a horrid mustache. He calls it a "rollie finger" mustache and seems rather proud of his accomplishment. I mean, really? Anyways, we have basically been living outside for the past several weeks and this also means that there has been some serious nudity going on North Main. Boys just love to be naked. What can I say?

If you look closely and squint hard, you'll be able to see my hubby's horrid facial hair. Boy do I love that man though!

A quick AND messy toddler activity

A few weeks ago, Alder and I played in the kitchen and made a huge mess creating our own play-doh like substance. It was extremely easy and as equally messy. By the end of the activity, he and I, as well as our dog, the entire floor, and most of the cabinets were covered in flour but it was time to clean in there anyways. We first dumped a cup of flour into a bowl. 

Alder loved helping measure out the flour and dumping it in. He also so enjoyed put his fingers into the bowl full of the white, powdery, and pillowy substance. Then we slowly added splashes of water to the bowl to create a paste.It got a little too wet and so we added more flour and then it got too thick and so we added more water until we got the perfect consistency. The two year old loved that it took us a while to achieve the consistency since it meant more fun with flour and more splashes of water. 

So this is what the consistency should look like. It could be a little more dry actually and if I were to do it again, I would try to add less water. 

Then I had Alder tell me what color he wanted his "play-doh" to be and he excitedly exclaimed "PURPLE!" So we had another learning moment and I explained that to get purple we had to combine red and blue. He looked at me blankly until he started to see the purple color emerge.

So in the end we achieved a rather ugly "mauvey" purple and that was ok because Alder thought it was a perfect purple color.

After all the mess and the coloring of our paste, we put it into a zip-loc bag (and if I were to do this again I would make sure I was using a non-dollar store zip-loc bag since the cheap one we used leaked.)

Alder loved playing with the bag of gunk. I showed him how to "draw" circles and lines. He loved moving his fingers back and forth and I explained to him the words, "left" and "right." According to helpful little book I used, this shows the child the movement of the left to right progression which trains the child's eyes for future reading and writing skills.

The book above is where this little activity came from. The book is laid out into weekly developmental activities for children from birth to age 5. I use it for both Kingston and Alder. This book was recommended by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise who wrote the book below. 

I received this book, The Well-Trained Mind, for my birthday and within days I had read through the first part. Jared and I have always felt that we will homeschool our children for some of their schooling years. We were blessed to be around so many amazing homeschool families while at Auburn that we became really convicted about teaching our children at home. We have no idea what that looks like. It might be for just the first few formative years or all the way through grammar school. We feel very strongly about the Trivium way of learning and this book is a fountain of information about homeschooling, classical education, and so on. The book can also be used for families who do not wish to homeschool full-time, but just supplement their children's education. I highly recommend reading the first part of this book if you have children. It may change the way you think and how you educate your children. 

We had a lovely Easter in Chattanooga. I will post pictures soon. 

Happy Tuesday!