Miracles happen even in Walmart...

Charis is "advanced". She is only 21 months and already going through the "terrible two's". She has started throwing some pretty spectacular tantrums. They are impressive in their length and endurance. She threw one on Tuesday that left her with hair wet from sweat and me praying on the floor and Drew riding me like a pony.

Yesterday we went to Walmart. I had made it 1/3 of the way down my list when a tantrum set in. So I hurried to check out line and cringed as I pulled up knowing that I was "that mom". I was ready for the looks. But a miracle happened... God put me in the perfect line. The lady in front of me loved kids and wasn't fazed by Charis. She talked to the kids and didn't act like anything was wrong with my child or me. The sweet cashier told me I was a "special mom" and when I apologized for Charis she called her a blessing! It was so nice of them to treat me with such grace. People love sweet, happy kids but, it was so nice for someone else to see the value of my kid even as she was not at her most loveable.

I know a lot of kids throw tantrums and we will get through this phase. She has a lot of sweet traits and I pray God uses her "spunk" for His glory as she gets older.

Stephen's Saga

Stephen has been working hard the last 3 days. He had some money from selling his Bronco and so he decided to make a man cave of sorts. We had a unused portion of our backyard that he wanted to make a patio and use for his grill and smoker. Hold a minute. The smoker is being made by Marcus Watson, one of his best good friends. It will be shaped and painted like a golf ball. It is a guy thing, I guess.

Stephen read online how to make a flagstone patio and got to work. It looks great! Tonight he got a chimnea. We call it Grumpy because it looked especially grouchy compared to all the others. Here are his before and after pictures.

Random

I lots of randomness to share. So here it goes...

Pops and Honey came to town. They have a new camper that they parked at Lake Grapevine and we went out to visit. The kids LOVED the ducks. We started feeding them and then from the farthest reaches of the lake more ducks and GEESE came. Geese are feisty. One in particular bit me 3 times. We all rode the golf cart around and Drew liked it but, was scared to "drive".

My Mimi, Mom, Aunt, and I went to lunch to celebrate my Aunt's 25 th birthday! We love this little tea room and go there for lunch occasionally. It was fun to visit with my girls. The kids hung on until lunch was over and then I had to scoot to put them down for a nap. This is Charis with her reading glasses at lunch.

My Mimi gave the kids two old cell phones to play with. They love it! This is them in the car. I kept hearing them say "herro", "bye" over and over.

The twins are 21 months old. That is almost 2! My Drewby was sick again today with a fever. As I was rocking him this afternoon I thought about how fast a year has gone. A year ago they had bottles at 7am, 11, 3pm, and 7pm, they ate baby food and some solids. They crawled everywhere. We had a dog. We won't talk about that. They took 2 naps a day and had no hair. Wow, now my babies drink from sippy cups, eat people food, take one nap, run everywhere, talk, and have cell phones.

Side note: if you are taking prayer requests here's one for ya. I KNOW that I am sooo super BLESSED to have healthy children. But, they had a hard winter/ spring last year with being sick and now we have been sick all month. They had a stomach bug, fever, stomach bug, fever. So I know it is all little stuff but, it is hard when they are sick and then Stephen and I get it too. So please pray that they have good immune systems and can stay relatively healthy this fall, winter, spring.

Dina, her sister, and I went to Canton at the beginning of September. Dina showed me this giant doll and said it reminded her of Charis and it did me too. Maybe it was the belly and "ta da" attitude...