Who's Who?

So apparently Josh and I make clone babies. Everyone keeps telling me that Miss AnnieB is looking more like Jake and I would have to agree, but I remember thinking that Lilly looked just like him, too! So I decided to do a little research... can you figure out who's who?

Our Budding Photographer

Jake has been savvy with our iPhones since before he could walk or talk, and my camera roll has been filled with different portions of his face on many occasions now. I've deleted hundreds, if not thousands by now, of pictures of just his cheek, up his nose, many of his forehead, and sometimes his shoes when he does not have the camera flipped around. The other day, however, I came across a few that were, well, almost artistic:

I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but this boy might just have an artistic eye! Or maybe I'm just another crazy mom who thinks her child is a creative genius. Either way, I had to share!

Bed Head

It never fails... whenever I see Jake's bed-head of hair:

It reminds me of this:

Does that mean there is something wrong with me???  But mmmm, a bloomin' onion sure sounds good about now!

I'm always a little sad to see that mop go, but as soon as we give Jake his "summer cut," it sure is nice to see more of that face everyday!

*Sidenote: the long-haired photo is an older picture of Jake. He has been paci-free since April and we're so very proud!

At The Old Ball Game

Between the University of Kentucky, our minor-league team (the Legends), and my two nephews who play several times a week, we have many opportunities to go spend a day or an evening at the ball park. Although I am not the biggest fan of the sport (mainly because I have a very short attention span and get distracted easily... and I wonder where my daughter gets it from!), I do enjoy it from a social aspect. I feel like I can sit and chat with friends or chase my kids and really not miss too much, which is hard to say for any other sport. Well, except maybe golf, but my kids most certainly would not be able to run around there like they can at the ball park! Regardless of whether we watch it or not, Jake and Lilly really seem to enjoy that environment every time we go. Jake usually plays in the dirt or runs up and down the hills, but will watch his two big cousins when they're up at bat. Recently, at a UK game, he spent 3/4 of the game talking to a girl who looked to be about a freshman in college. She told me that she didn't mind, and I truly think she might have been Jake's first little crush. He brought over some popcorn, tried to read the program to her, and mostly just chatted her ear off even though I doubt she made sense of most of it. If you're not around Jake a lot, you don't always catch what he's saying in his little language mixed with English. It was too cute for words. Lilly, on the other hand, is totally content sitting in the fresh air and eating stadium food- yes, she is definitely my child!

It's still early in the season, but I'd say my kids already fit right in. Because in true surprising Lilly fashion, she has already learned the delicate art of properly eating sunflower seeds, taught to her by her Aunt Angie:

We've taught them well. No matter where you go in life, at least look like you know what you're doing!

MarioKart - Jake Style

Two weeks ago while watching Wreck It Ralph for the millionth time, we thought it might be fun for Jake to actually see a racing game, like the one in the movie. My mom has a Wii at her house, so we hooked it up for him, gave him a remote, and let him have at it. After a few pretty rough attempts, we gave him an inactive remote and sat behind him as we played, making him think that he was actually driving. He immediately loved it, which is pretty awesome for me since I now have an excuse to play MarioKart just about everyday! Although he still drives on occasion, he actually much prefers watching others play as long as he gets to pick the character, car, and course. And in true Jake fashion, you have to know his language for things in order to know what he's asking. For example, the red guy is Mario and the green guy is Luigi (obviously). When choosing a car, he frequently says, "no not that one" until you land on the one he wants. And you have to know the boards pretty well to know that "play snakes" means Koopa Cape, "leaves" means Maple Treeway, "moon" means Rainbow Road, "mud" means Waluigi's Stadium, and so on. It totally threw our sitter off the other night, but she managed to figure most of them out. On certain boards, he also loves to purposely drive off cliffs into the water or do the course backwards... apparently both activities are hilarious!

The other day I was making lunch in the kitchen when I looked up and realized that our little man had actually become quite good at driving on his own! I was oddly proud and had to take a video:

I sent it to my mom with a text that said, "Looks like you have some competition!" since she loves to play, too. Looks like my son just might turn out to be a gamer, but I hope it's always stuff that I can play with him! I probably should enjoy it while I can! 

Pastor's Wives: Uncensored

Intrigued? I've had it on my heart to do a fun little series for awhile, and now that Easter has passed, those of us in ministry families have a little bit more free time. Just like any profession, we have a "busy" season and a "slow" season, although to be honest it's never slow in ministry, and I'm going to take advantage of some freed up time to get this going.

So what's the idea behind the series, you wonder? I'm not sure about you, but growing up in church I don't remember much about the pastor's wife. From what I do remember (or maybe just assumed), she was an older woman who may have played the organ or sung in the church choir, someone who really did not speak out much and was more of a figure standing piously next to her husband. Let's just say that based on these images, I was not excited (and even tried to say "no" to our first date) about possibly marrying into ministry. But instead, what I have found, is that the other wives that I have been surrounded by have been some of the most real, authentic, genuine, and downright cool women that I have ever met, and I am so thankful and honored to be able to call them friends. With this in mind, I thought it might be fun to get into some of their heads and break down some of the stereotypes that people create for us. It's not uncommon for me to hit it off with someone until they find out what my hubby does (and therefore I do) and all of the sudden shut down, more than likely as they mentally try and recall whether or not they have cursed during our conversation. Newsflash: I have heard many curse wods in my life, and in fact, had periods in my life where I used them more than I'd like to admit (gasp!). And while it's a personal choice not to use that language any more, one has been known to slip out when, say, my car begins to hydroplane on a wet road or I bang my knee into the coffee table. It's the things like this, as well as bigger things, that we're gonna go after.

So I hope you enjoy the next few Thursdays as I have some guest bloggers joining me. Leading off with by one of my best friends on the planet, Brittany, who you may remember from the Reflections series we did awhile back. I'll post eventually, too, but thought it might be fun to mix it up for a bit. So tune in next week for week one and a fresh perspective from some great gals who married into ministry. I look forward to reading these and hope you do, too!

I Promised Myself...

...that this would not happen again this year....
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But I failed miserably.
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This, my friends, is a problem that seems to be turning into a weird habit and/or tradition. What are the odds that we get this thing out of our yard before Thanksgiving?

Speaking of Plants...

I saw this post over on Honey We're Home and it made me laugh because I have had the same exact post in my head for months and just never took the photos to do it.  You see, she has this plant in her home that seems to survive no matter how poorly it is taken care of, and wanted to know what kind of plant it is. And me? Well, I've been known to have a bit of a "black thumb" and can kill anything that I try to grow, but we, too, have this one plant that was given to us awhile back that can stand up to just about anything.  Meet Laz:

Yeah, poor guy... this is what he looks like most of the time. He goes for weeks without water, even though I see him and think, "gee, I should really water that thing!" And after a couple of pitiful weeks I finally get around to it and without fail, a day or two later, he's back to his perky old self:

Pretty amazing, right? This is probably the only plant we will ever have in our house since I know he can survive my terrible care and has already weathered a move.  After reading the comments on her post I learned that this is a peace lily, which are actually poisonous so I am thankful that I have always had it on top of our china cabinet where no little hands (or mouths) can get to it!

And the name? You might've guessed it... Laz is short for Lazarus, the man that Jesus raised from the dead (which you can read about here). I think ol' Laz can relate.

And speaking of raising from the dead, I wish all of you a very happy Easter. For us who call ourselves Christians, this is far more important than Easter and is the reason behind it all. I am thankful for a God who loved us so much that He sacrificed His one and only son so that my sins could be washed clean, therefore allowing myself to have a relationship with the creator of the universe. If you are in a place where you do not understand the magnitude and wonder of it all, I challenge you to explore this truth this weekend, go to a life-giving church, hear about the love He has for us, and be in the most important and valuable relationship that we are offered. Or if you do know, and know that His love dramatically changes the quality of your life, remember to invite a friend this weekend. Do you know that 1 out of every 4 people invited to church will accept, and the percentage is even higher on Easter weekend? Someone out there is just waiting to be asked, so what are you waiting for?

Happy Easter, friends. I hope you have a blessed, fun-filled weekend!

My Mom's Cooler Than Your Mom

Case in point... she got us Bon Jovi tickets for Christmas this year, which we got to finally use last night. Quite possibly the best concert I've ever been to in my life... he played for three straight hours and played every single song we could think of that we wanted to hear. I don't think that man ever ages... and he ran around that stage, danced, and belted out every song and hardly appeared to break a sweat. Plus, the visual effects were quite incredible!

And in case you didn't know, Bon Jovi is Josh's all time favorite band since he was a kid, so to say he was excited is an understatement.  Both of us loved the show, but people watching was just as much, if not more, fun. In Josh's words... "Bon Jovi has aged well. His fans, not so much." I guess 80's rockers die hard and we saw a lot of leather, big hair, neon, and even a pair of leopard-skin spandex pants... on a 40ish year old woman no less. Yes, it was epic.  And for your Friday viewing pleasure, here's a little clip of everyone's favorite classic... with a shaky hand and lots of obnoxious singing... it was way too hard to just video and not sing along:

He's still going strong... we saw fans from about 6-years-old to the cute 70ish year old couple that sat right behind us. It was pretty awesome.

And last but not least, I want to give BIG shout out to my birthday boy today... 

My Jake is THREE !!!!

(where does the time go?)!!!!  I'll do a more "official" birthday post after we celebrate this weekend, but I couldn't post today without giving him a little love. Looks like we're set up for a really great weekend around here!

Wordless Wednesday - Snow!

Thirty-Two Again

Guess who has a birthday today? Yup, that's right... it's yours truly!

 

And guess who will finally be telling people that she's the correct age? Right again! It's yours truly!

 

Getting older might be tough for some people, but considering that thirty-one just never seemed to stick and I've been saying that I'm thirty-two for an entire year now, I think this one is pretty easy to swallow. Besides, thirty-two treated me very kind the first time around, so I'm looking forward to another great year.

 

Hmmm... I wonder if I can get away with just being thirty-two from here on out?

 

And just for fun, here are a few people who also celebrate this day every year:

Muhammad Ali, Jim Carrey, Benjamin Franklin, Kid Rock, Andy Kaufman, James Earl Jones, Michelle Obama, Betty White, Al Capone, David Caruso, Zooey Deschanel, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Anne Bronte, Benjamin Franklin

 

Pretty impressive list, eh? Me thinks I am happy to be amongst that company... both the famous and infamous!

 

 

And even though I don't believe in astrology and horoscopes, I think it's always fun/funny to check them out on your birthday:

 

"You are likely to be on top of your game this year for the most part, and positive connections with others can be made fairly easily. A comfortable level of personal popularity helps keep conflict to a minimum. With the ability to handle your emotions successfully, there will be less stress on both your mind and body. Your self-confidence and positive attitude will reward you!

 

You certainly have a voice this year, and learning comes more quickly to you. You have a lot to do in the period ahead. At times, you may feel like the pace of your life is running ahead of you. You can be especially productive, however, in all types of communications--writing, speaking, learning, teaching, and so forth.

 

Try to relax your need for control. In fact, you may be able to take a relationship to a whole other level. You'll have a chance to heal old wounds with regards to love this year. You're also bound to find new ways of making money. This aspect can also suggest making a large purchase or payment and having to adjust your spending as a result. Certain elements of your social life and financial life are stabilized, secured, and more reliable this year.  Support from older people or authority figures may come by way of solid advice or more tangible help. Renewed ties to old friends are possible, or a new sense of responsibility in existing friendships, are also highly likely.

 

This is an excellent year for making significant headway on a creative project. Romance is also in high focus this year. Love is exciting and intense, but you will need to relax your desire for control. The need to make changes in your social life and with your finances becomes clear."

Small confession: I may have read a few different ones and picked my favorite! Again, I don't really buy into horoscopes, as I know that my faith is in God alone and it's all in His control and His wonderful plan, but why not pick the most favorable one, right?? Haha. At any rate, I have to say that so far I've loved my thirties and look forward to taking on some new projects and roles again this year! Here's to celebrating thirty-two "again"!

See-Kee-Gam-Moo

Bet you've never seen that blog post title before!

A few weeks ago, Jake started talking about the "See-Kee-Gam-Moo" (which is the best way I can sound it out). At first, I thought it was just a word he made up, but it continued to come up in conversations. I even caught it on film once:

See? He was very serious about it, and very frustrated that I did not know what he was talking about (side note: isn't he just the cutest?... and sorry it is blurry for some reason). The only clues we got was that it was "scary" and that sometimes Jake would hear it at the door and then hide under a blanket. It was bizarre to say the least.

Over Thanksgiving I mentioned that my friend Christie and her two sweet kids came to visit. She was over when Jake brought it up and she immediately knew the answer to our mystery:

"Jake, do you mean the Silly Gilly Gumbo?" she asked. And was then nice enough to catch this small part of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on camera to send to me later. I was amazed at her mommy translating skills (and Clubhouse knowledge as I thought I had all episodes memorized by now).

I'm thankful for my other mommy-friends for all kinds of reasons, but it's at times like this that I realize how much I need other moms in my life. They can relate to what I'm going through whether it's sleep deprivation, the "terrible two's" (which aren't so terrible by the way), feeding and diapering questions (yes, we discuss bodily functions quite a bit), and my favorite, the fun stuff like this. We can swap stories about the funny things our kids have been doing or saying and laugh about the times that we don't quite react in a mommy-of-the-year manner. It's a club that I'm proud to be a part of, and I love dearly.

Looking back at the years that I've known Christie, we couldn't help but laugh about this. We met when we were fresh out of college, starting our first jobs, and had years to go before we'd meet our husbands. We used to discuss fashion, celebrities, dating, and what our weekend plans would be. We've made countless girls' trips to Disney (some of the best weekends of my pre-married life), had many sleepovers, and used to enjoy many lazy Saturdays lounging on the couch watching movies like "The Holiday," our personal favorite. It's amazing to see us know, years later, being wives and moms and truly understanding who we are, who we want to be, and what we value in life. My how times have changed, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Some friends last the test of time and she is one of many... and she's great at 2-year-old translating if you ever need her services.

If you're a mom and you're reading this today, just be reminded that some days we don't have it all together, but if we stick together, we can get through anything. Be blessed this week and know that you're doing the best you can!

Dear Blog,

I guess I should apologize to you for neglecting you over the past few weeks. You see, I've been, well... overwhelmed with some things and it seems that when I have to cut back, you are the first to go. It doesn't mean that I love you any less than all of the other things in my life, it's just that as a mom who works full-time at home, my favorite hobbies sometimes fall on the bottom of the priority list. I should probably go write a letter to my running shoes next as well as all of the half-finished books on my nightstand. And just so you don't think that it's only things that I love that fall to the bottom of the list, you'll be happy to know that similar letters are probably owed to things like the vacuum cleaner and piles of laundry, too. Yes, sometimes I just get behind on life, and before I know it, I've let this little place in the blog-world go weeks without a visit. So again, sorry about that. But just so you don't think I'm making all of this up, here are a few things I've been up to during my blog-absence:

We made an impromptu day trip up to Cincinnati to meet my new nephew, Samuel. And to my defense, I would've posted about this, but I wanted to let his mommy post the announcement first. He also spent some time down here over Thanksgiving and I got to snap some fun photos of the little guy. Oh how I love him so!

In conjunction with Sam's arrival, one of my best friends, Christie, and her two cutie-pie kiddos came and visited for a few weeks to help out with baby and just visit of course.

We've also done a little shopping... both online and on Black Friday, although we agreed it wasn't quite as exciting this year and somewhat overcrowded.

It's that time of year to reconnect with old friends and family, so we've been doing a lot of that, too... catching up with loved ones is always fun.

We also had Thanksgiving of course, which means lots of holiday baking! I had some help in the kitchen this year, even though she was much more interested in sampling.

And what's Thanksgiving without a little relaxing, parade watching, and football?

On top of all of this, I've been a bit under the weather for longer that I would like and my card-reader on my Mac has decided to stop working, which makes uploading photos difficult. Excuses, excuses I know, but when added to the crazy past few weeks, it really does all add up.

So yes, it's been a whirlwind month around here, but we've been having tons of fun, so I hope you'll forgive me? With the holidays coming up I cannot promise to be much better next month, but I'll certainly try. I'm just hoping that with this little break, absence will only make the heart grow fonder, so we'll see. Thanks for understanding and for always being here whenever I'm ready to come back. I miss you when I take these breaks, but always know that I'll never abandon you without telling you, okay? You're my piece of the world that lets me unload, reflect, and flex my creative muscle and I'm not sure I could make it without you. Thanks for being my blog.

Love always,
Kim

How did you find me?

Awhile back, one of my friends did a post about how people made their way to her blog. I'm not sure if you've ever looked at it, but on both Blogger and Wordpress, there is a section on your dashboard that keeps track of your stats and traffic. Under Traffic Sources (at least on Blogger) is a section called "Search Keywords." So just for fun I thought I'd take a peek and share my findings. Here are the top keywords (well, phrases really) that will get you to my blog!

 

Mauneyland blog: Makes sense. My original blog was called Mauneyland when it was only about our family and it was imported into this one. The original blog still exists (for now), but just directs people here.

 

Seeds you sow Blogspot: Duh. I would hope that would take you here.

 

Come to worship: I'm guessing these words are somewhere in one of my posts about our church plant or maybe in a weekly Reflections post?

 

Running Tights: Now that I think about it, I have admitted to liking running tights in a recent post.

 

But here is my favorite... (drumroll, please!)

 

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Mom parenting fail: Say what????

 

I almost went into panic mode wondering if that is how the blog world sees me and what I might have written that would direct someone here with that search. But then I realized that I'm glad those words brought someone here, because if nothing else, I always try to be honest and real. And you know what? Some days I am one big mess of a mom parenting fail... try as I might, I have those days. Some days around here I cannot find the floor of our house because of piles of laundry, toys, and other items scattered about. There have been moments where Jake has done something when I was already nearing my breaking point and I shouted at him, probably a little louder than I meant to. There have been days where I literally end up in tears because my kids will not nap on a day that I really need them to (because I have other [more selfish] things to get done). There are days when I absolutely do not qualify for any "Mom of the Year" nominations, and I'm okay with that... because I know I'm not the only one. And I know that there are others out there.

 

So if you ever search "Mom parenting fail" and find yourself here, to you I say "welcome"! This is a place where you can come as you are and realize that none of us really have it all together, nobody is perfect, and it's okay to share the joys as well as the frustrations. To me that's what mommyhood is all about- for every frustration we encounter there is joy ten-fold in the sound of a child's laughter, noticing that your child picked up a new skill or learned a new word, and watching him or her grow and change every day. It's a journey, and like any other journey, it's one with its ups and downs. But I can say without a doubt, that it is by far the best journey I've ever been on. I hope others can find comfort here knowing that we all just take it one day at a time, with some days being better than others. 

Show Us Your Life: Halloween Costumes

Happy Friday! I think I say that every Friday... I guess that's because they always seem to be happy!

Anyhoo... today I am linking up over at Kelly's Korner as part of her "Show Us Your Life" series. The topics are always fun, but I usually forget to participate. Thankfully I popped in over there yesterday and noticed that the next SUYL date was today! And the topic is fun, too- show us your Halloween costumes!

Considering that this was taken on an ordinary Sunday in June...

Dressing up for this family is not a far stretch! BUT... my favorite Halloween costume of ours of ALL TIME has to be our first Halloween when we were mimes!

Not only is this an easy costume option (which I believe we came up with at the very last minute), but it's so much fun, too! We were two of the worst mimes ever and lasted about 30 minutes seconds without talking. We did enjoy acting things out and making total fools of ourselves though!

The Pros: 

It's cheap (black clothes, white gloves, white face paint, black lipstick for lips and eyebrows, eyeliner); everyone LOVED it (although we got robbed in the costume contest... not that I'm bitter or anything! Ha!); it's warm (if you live in a colder place); and you can have tons of fun "miming" all night.

The Cons: 

I do not want to show you a picture from the end of the night... we looked ROUGH! White facepaint tends to stick to every crease and wrinkle you have, so just beware! Also, I smiled in many photos and not only did it just look... well... strange, but my teeth also did not look all that white next to my white face. But it was worth it.

As for the kiddos, they're the most fun always! Jake has now been both a spider and a dragon:

 And Miss Lilly was Minnie Mouse at just one-month-old (and I was too sleep-deprived to dress up)!

This is the first year that we're going for a full family-affair, but I can't spoil all the fun. All I can say is that we'll be decked out in lots of red spandex... that should be enough to make you wonder! Many folks around here already know what we'll be based on the fact that Jake has lived in his costume for a few weeks now. He loves it!  I'll make sure to post pictures next week!

I can't wait to visit other blogs and see all of their great ideas. I mean, who doesn't love to dress up just for a day?