Our Anniversary Trip

Ahhhh... Our first trip alone together (alone, together?) since 2004 and it was wonderful! We've taken other trips with couple friends since then but this was just the two of us!

We headed to Austin, dropped the girls off with Gram & Boppa and continued on to the Hyatt Wild Oaks Ranch for some much-needed together time and relaxation. (We spent two nights in Austin with my family to celebrate my sister's Birthday... another post on that to come... so it wasn't really a "drive-by drop-off" of the kiddos like it sounds. We weren't quite that anxious, but close!) We mostly hung out at the hotel, but did go in to San Antonio the last night. (You can't be that close to the Riverwalk and not go eat Mexican food, right?!)

We missed our babies, but sure enjoyed the break. It's been too long since I've had 4+ consecutive hours of sleep, and I'm not sure my body knew how to appreciate it. I kept waking up during the night feeling like there was something I needed to be doing. Too bad. Guess you can take the girls away from the Mother, but you can't take the "Mother" out of the girl.

Nevertheless, it was fantastic!! Looking forward to more trips like this in the future! :)

5 Years!

(No... I'm not talking about the last time I posted something on my blog, although it SEEMS like it's been that long.)

Collin and I celebrated our 5 year Wedding Anniversary last week! It occurred to me that many of my current friends didn't know us back then and didn't get to participate in that major event of our lives. So-- I pulled out the old scanner, dusted it off and awkwardly spent the next hour or so scanning the images from my gigantic black wedding album. (If you have one of these, you know what I'm talking about.) You know, the black leather-bound book with gold-edged pages... This book looks like it ATE a wedding. It took me a while, and the images are a terribly low quality (due to a setting I was unaware of until I had finished scanning all the images), but at least all my new friends can now feel like they were a part of that day and my old friends can remember the good time we had.

And, on a sappy note... :)
Since this blog is really a family journal, I'd like to write a little note to my husband. (Please feel free to quit reading here and skip to the pictures if you'd like! I totally understand. But Collin, my love :) the rest is for you, so you're kind of required to read on...)

I LOVE that we chose November for the month to get married because just hearing the name of the month, "November," evokes thoughts of thankfulness... and I AM thankful. Thank you for choosing me; For making me your wife and for vowing to love, honor & cherish ME until you lay me in Jesus' arms, or until He comes again.

Although we are still newlyweds in the eyes of many who have been married for decades, we've had quite a start! You've loved me so many times when I've been unlovable... in good times and bad... and you've valued and prioritized our marriage when it might have felt easier to just give up. You've been my buddy, my best friend, the best looking man in the room, my spiritual leader and the one I admire most. You've encouraged me in so many ways. You never miss an opportunity to stop me for a hug and to remind me that you think I'm beautiful-- many times when I have no make-up on and haven't showered in days! You bring such peace and perspective to our home, and also provide a wealth of creative dreams and ideas.

Nothing is ever broken for long at our house because of you, my amazing hubby! You can fix ANYTHING. Anything. From replacing my brake pads and rotors to save the money that a mechanic would charge, to conquering major electrical issues at the house, to fixing computer "gliches" that would cause others to be off-line for weeks, to installing everything from doors to appliances to French drains in the yard... I'm honestly convinced that there is very little that is too difficult for you. And if you don't already know how to do it, you WILL figure it out and you will do it better than anyone we could have hired.

And all the while, you are the most tender-hearted Daddy to our little girls. The same hands that come in greasy from the garage after working on the car are the hands that cradle Julia when she cries and "high-five" Avery when she sings, "Jesus Loves Me" all by herself. They love you SO much and look up to you. Their spirits lift in an unexplainable way when you walk through the door. (There's no peace quite the same as when Daddy comes home.)

But whatever "hat" you're wearing... whether it's husband, father, friend, young professional, Director, volunteer, brother, son (& son-in-law) ...you wear it well. And if I had it to do over again a million times, I would ALWAYS chose YOU. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway because I can't tell you enough-- I love you. I LOVE you. Thank you for the life you've worked so hard to build for me, and for Avery, and for Julia. We couldn't ASK for anything more and I hope we're always as blessed as we are today.

Happy 5 years, sweets! We're just rookies... but I'm looking forward to many more years of memories for as long as we both shall live.

She sings...

This is the most fun "new thing" Avery has added to the list of things that melt our hearts. Is there anything as cute as a 2-year-old trying to sing a song and completely butchering the lyrics?! We love it. There are a few songs she occasionally sings, but we've only been able to catch two of them on film. The ones we have video of are "Jesus Loves Me" and the "Clean-Up Song." Her other favorites are "Twinke, Twinkle" and "ABC's."

This may sound cheesy, but I can honestly say that my absolute FAVORITE moment of parenthood so far has been singing Jesus Loves Me with Avery. There's nothing like that... I guess it's because I truly believe the words. To many people, that song is just for kids... But let me say from experience: When you watch your 7-month-old go limp under anesthesia for an MRI, or get a phone call from the doctor saying your unborn baby may have a fatal genetic defect, the words, "Little ones to Him belong, They are weak but He is strong" take on an all-new meaning. So to be able to sit with Avery in my lap, look her in the eyes and hear her sweet little voice singing this song along with me... Nothing else compares. (Sorry the lighting is bad on the first two videos... We had to just grab the camera and film because we never know what might scare away the singing and cause her to be camera shy!)

Jesus Loves Me: A "duet" video first, and then Avery goes solo for the 2nd video. Underneath the 2nd video, I'll type what I think she's actually singing so you can follow along with her words.


"N I know... Oh, Bible So... The children are bueno... But, He's strong... Yes, Jesus. Yes, Jesus. Oh, Bible So."

The Clean-Up Song: If you're not familiar with it the actual words are, "It's clean-up, it's clean-up... Everybody, everywhere... It's clean-up, it's clean-up... Everybody do your share." Avery sings it, "Clean-up, clean-up... All-body share!" :) Close enough!

Double-Take

For anyone who still believes that Avery looks like her Daddy... I stumbled on this photo of myself that was made back in 1982-ish and thought it was worth posting. Does this look like anyone we know? :) (...Yes, I'm aware that Avery's looks favor Collin... but I'm definitely in there too and now I have proof!)

Tastes like November!

Today may have been warm enough to wear shorts, but Avery and I decided to bake like it was 35` degrees outside!

What better way to welcome November than to bake a pumpkin pie together? I was in the mood for a little "November" today and I thought it would be a good baking activity for Avery to help with since pumpkin pie is so simple. It was definitely an exercise in patience, baking with a 2-year-old. :) Collin brought the camera in and snapped a few pictures, and then I kept it with me and took some more. These are pictures that probably only the Grandparents will enjoy, but I thought I'd blog them anyway...

I also have a couple of videos that I'll post too. One of them was hilarious in person, but you can't quite tell what's going on in the video, so I'll explain: We got the sugar all measured out (Avery ladled it into my Pampered Chef measurer-- little by little for a LONG time-- until it was filled) and then as soon as it was level to the top she leaned over and BLEW on the sugar! Who knows why she did that... but she did. And then she did it again! Sugar was flying everywhere, and it was funny. But you know what happens if you laugh with Avery in the room, so we kept our chuckles to ourselves but it's caught on film for us to laugh at retroactively. :) ...And I also laughed at myself in the video too because I say, "Good job" after I pour the sugar in! HA! That self-affirmation was accidental, I assure you.

The only thing that stinks is that it was bedtime before the pie cooled enough for her to taste. :( Oh well... she can have a bite of pumpkin pie for breakfast, right? A little "sugar high" before Sunday School never hurt anyone! ...Just don't tell her teachers. :)

Happy November! ...Hard to believe that Christmas is just a little more than 7 weeks away... Wow.

Found this on a friend's blog and thought it was hilarious.

Halloween fun!

Halloween was a blast at the Poage house!

Our neighborhood association had a party at the new park on our street, and I did a horrible job making pictures because I was too busy making friends! :) Avery was "Fancy Nancy" and had fun swinging (big surprise) and playing with all the other neighborhood kiddos. Julia, our red M&M, took her turn in the swing for a little bit too! We had a wonderful potluck picnic and when the sun set, everyone headed out to trick-or-treat!

Collin and Avery hit the pavement and brought home some serious candy. Collin enjoyed every minute of the social aspect of trick-or-treating, and after the first house Avery understood the concept and went straight for the candy when the door opened. HA! I guess it's still acceptable behavior from a 2-year-old, but next year we'll expect her to wait patiently for it to be handed to her.

It was a fun night! ...I just can't believe it's November...

**SMILE**

Remember when I referenced my "wonderful friends" a few posts back? The sweet (and honestly undeserved) comments I've gotten in the past few days completely affirm that sentiment. I know it's Halloween and not Thanksgiving but I am TRULY thankful for you, my treasured friends. Thank you for encouraging me and making me smile.

Playdough and Pasta... Spooky.

Happy Halloween, everyone!!

Avery woke up at 5:30 this morning (Thursday) when she usually doesn't wake up until 7:00, so we had time to do some crafts between breakfast and changing into "real" clothes to go to the park. (Check out the major bed-head that both girls have going on in the picture above!) We played with playdough and Halloween cookie cutters-- pumpkin, moon, bat & cat-- which was awesome because I got the fun of baking cookies with Avery without any of the calories! HA!!

We also made "skeletons" out of pasta and construction paper... and I can give some back-story here. A few weeks ago Avery started to become curious about bones. She was pushing on my clavicle as I carried her somewhere and I explained that the hard thing she felt was a "bone." Then she was intrigued... I tried to show her other bones by having her press on my hands, forearms, etc. So when we were at the grocery store yesterday, I grabbed a couple of packages of pasta that I thought she could make a "bone-craft" with... and what better season than Halloween?



"My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." -Psalm 139:15-16

Happy Halloween, everybody!!
**Please excuse the extremely peppy voice in these videos... guess my 5:30am wake-up call prompted some extra strong coffee!! Better peppy than grumpy, I guess!**

"What do you do all day?"

I wasn't sure about posting this article, and I'm still on the fence about how it might be received. I want to preface this post by saying that nothing and no one has prompted this-- I just thought it was interesting and worth the read. It was something my Mom sent me when Avery was a very little baby, and I ran across it again last night. I felt compelled to pass it along to a few friends to get their opinions on whether it was "blog-worthy" or not. Their response: Post it.

Now, let's be clear. My friends (with and without kids) are wonderful to me. I've always felt supported in my choice to stay home and I feel like they make a genuine effort to listen to my stay-home-Mom anecdotes whether they can relate or not. My wonderful husband has always openly shared his gratitude for what I do for our daughters on a daily basis and truly honors me in doing so. But even with all that said, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a printed validation of my daily "job" and how eloquently this journalist described a day in the life of a mother at home with young children. It's informative, entertaining, and offers a glimpse into the lives of those of us who "work" at home.

(Click to enlarge...)

A ranting from a crazy woman whose ears are ringing...

I'm not a phone person.

Never have been, really. I enjoy the occasional chat on the phone every now and then, but I am SO thankful that I'm of the e-mail generation because if it weren't for the internet I don't think I'd have any friends due to the fact that I seldom talk on the phone. In the rare case that my hands are actually free when our home phone rings, our phones are cordless and are hardly ever charged. I always answer my cell phone if I am aware of the fact that it's ringing. :/ One pathetic truth about me is that I very rarely return calls because for some unknown reason I just don't like to talk on the phone. (As I type this, I realize how blessed I am to have friends who forgive me for this and allow me to continue calling them my "friends" in spite of my terrible phone behavior!) :)

With that said, I can't even describe how frequently our home phone rings right now with everyone calling to campaign. It's about a call a minute... or so it feels. I'm SO ready to hop in a time machine and take my family back to a simpler time before Alexander Graham Bell decided to get crafty with sound experiments and change communication forever.

I'm blogging this to put out "feelers" and see if everyone is dealing with heavier phone traffic right now, or if we're just lucky. (?)

Few things are more frustrating than a ringing home phone in 3 out of 5 rooms in the house just after getting both kiddos down for a nap or down for the night. Everything hangs in the balance and for about 8 seconds I stand perfectly still, holding my breath, cringing and hoping that I don't hear anyone waking up. And then, at the first sound of rustling, I crumble... and usually let out a huge, "UUUGH!!!" that goes along with my, "Poor me" attitude as I mentally wave goodbye to my visions of a few moments to myself. That I might actually get to grab a bite to eat, or check my e-mail, use the restroom or put clothes on for the day... or if I'm REALLY lucky I might get to shower!! ...Many Moms reading this right now know JUST the feeling I'm describing... It truly is one of the only things that makes me want to cry like a baby. What's worse is when this "wake-up call" comes from an automated voice encouraging me to "Vote for ___ and do it early!"

Sigh... Only 1 more week, right?
I may take my home phone off the hook until then. You've all been warned. :)

Trunk-or-Treat!

BIG FUN on a Sunday afternoon!!

Park Cities Baptist (Avery's School) had a "Trunk-or-Treat" yesterday to celebrate Halloween a little early. A "Trunk-or-Treat" is a good way to get to go trick-or-treating with all your friends in a limited space because instead of visiting HOUSES, it's trunks of cars! They shut the street down to thru-traffic and lined it with decorated cars of church member volunteers sitting with their trunks open and full of candy. (What a great idea!) The cars are judged to see who wins 1st prize for their decorations, so the cars were really spectacular! There were no scary decorations or costumes, so it was the perfect for the little ones.

We invited some friends to meet us there, got the girls all dolled up in their costumes and headed over to the church for the festivities! Julia went as a red M&M, and Avery went as her favorite book character, Fancy Nancy. It was SUCH a fun time! Pony rides... jugglers... LOTS of candy... and many little knee-high "characters" all dressed up as their favorite things. We couldn't have asked for a better dress-rehearsal for the real day!

It's true what they say... Having kids keeps you young! :)

Fort Worth Alliance Air Show!

What a fun Saturday! (Two weekends ago... I'm late posting, but what's new?!)

The Farells invited us to join them at the Fort Worth Alliance Air Show to go see the planes and spend a day outdoors. Collin, Avery & I had a BLAST! ...Not so sure Julia enjoyed any of it, though. I don't know what we were thinking taking a 6-month-old who is still primarily breastfed to something like this where there's minimal shade, constant loud noises from airplanes and no place to go and feed the poor baby... But she was a pretty good trooper once we finally convinced her that the bottle was her only option and got her to go to sleep in the stroller for a little bit. Poor kiddo. She might have a perpetual fear of airplane noise for the rest of her life. :(

Drew & Avery loved it! The planes were such fun to see, touch & explore, and the performers were AMAZING! We wished we could have stayed longer, but Julia never quite relaxed enough to give us that option. :/

Thanks for inviting us, Farells!! Next year will be better!

In our car seats! We're off to the Air Show!...


We're here!! Check out Avery with her free souvenir football and ammo!.. Pretty tough, huh??



Drew and Avery getting up-close views of real planes! (Guess Avery's not so tough after all...)


WOW! Look at that!...



Strolling back to the cars to go home!... Too bad "little bit" couldn't have toughed it out. (See back of stroller and imagine very loud screams being drowned-out by even louder planes...) We would have loved to stay longer!

Rub-a-Dub-dub!

Two Girls in a Tub!! :)


We've had to get creative with bath time lately, otherwise we'd be spending half of our evenings in suds trying to bathe one, drain the tub and throw the other one in and start over again. (What do people with multiples do?!) This way we can tackle both at one time. ...And it makes for cute pictures. :)


We cracked up at this video... First you need to know a little background: Avery had just been saying, "I love you, YaYa!" and we were trying to get it on video. Unfortunately when we pulled out the camera and asked her to say it again, she quickly responded, "No," which made us laugh. That was a problem. Our sweet little tender-hearted Avery has a bit of a fear of laughter. If anyone within ear-shot bursts into laughter, she assumes she's being laughed at and she freezes up and cries like you just kicked her dog! We have no idea who or what initiated this craziness, but it sure has put a damper on the fun! We always have to be careful when anything funny occurs because laughing can send Avery into a bad mood for the next half-hour. Sigh... Poor Aves. And poor US! Watch Julia, though... she keeps patting Avery like, "It's ok... Hey... they're talking to you... what's wrong?..." Precious.

Enjoy!

The Patch!

We LOVED our outing to the Dallas Arboretum yesterday!

We got to go explore the Pumpkin Patch with some friends and their kiddos! Our group must have looked like one of those stroller classes! It was me & the girls, Andrea and her two, Jennifer and her two, Lydia & Drew, Shannon & Nathan, Leigh and her three, and other "friends of friends" too! Good thing the pumpkin patch is huge!