Home sweet home

Well, yes. Buck and I were off doing very important things last week. Things like this:

And this

Well, and of course we had to eat...

Well, and we didn't want to get thirsty after being out in the sun all day...

There were some educational experiences as well...

Our friendly iguana here outside our condo was always fun to look at!

But mostly it was just about relaxing and enjoying God's creation. It was amazing. View from the deck of our condo:

Buck and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in June and Buck knew it would literally take removing me from the country to get me to relax. We spent a glorious, sun-filled week in Riviera Maya, Mexico at an all-inclusive resort. Our biggest decision of the day? Which of the 12 restaurants to eat at for dinner. It took a couple of days, but it worked. I got out of "mommy mode" and into "relaxation mode." It was the trip of a lifetime and we were so blessed to have our good friends Brad and Annie with us for a couple of days as well (some well-timed overlapping made for a ton of fun!). But I must leave you with this picture and illustration of God's beauty. Sunrise on the beach:

Buck's parents, Buck's sister and my mom held down the fort here at home. We are overwhelmingly grateful for their gifts of time to our family for this vacation! But the best part of being gone? Coming home to this:

Yep, rested and refreshed and ready to get back at our life together! Lovin' it!

Happy Monday, friends. Love, Laura Joy

Wordless Wednesday...The Bigs and Funky T

Happy Wednesday, yo.

As promised...

Pictures of the boys...but alas I couldn't resist this one:

Dressed in a fairy costume just because, and sporting some orange vampire teeth while eating animal crackers. Love it.

Max's comment: "Here, Mom. I'm going to do this. Just like Superman." Yep, Kids for Christ! Jesus is our Superman!

This guy is so cute he could hardly hurt a fly...but wait, he's going to try to do it without smiling...

HI---

YAH!!!! (I love how Tate is just standing there with a cookie. Nothing fazes this guy.)

See--he couldn't HI-YAH! without a smile! :) Love my hardworking Karate Kid!

Back to Mr. Serious. Thank you, sir.

A little perspective

I love it when God teaches me perspective. Not LOVE IT love it, but love it that He is teaching me. So this was where Tate and I were on Tuesday:

Not specifically but you get my point. We were at a cushy doctor's office--an urgent care place, where you walk in, ask for an appointment and are seen hopefully within the hour. Well, Tate hadn't been sleeping well for the past few nights, had a low grade fever and just overall wasn't himself. So I sat in the waiting room, Tate played with a cool bead toy, read some books, we watched "The Price is Right" on the huge flat screen TV in the waiting room. 3 patients later, they finally called us back to a room. After that, Tate started to get a little fussy. I mean, we'd been there for like an hour. This was supposed to be urgent care after all. What was going on? I had to go pick up Zoe from preschool in like 30 minutes...that doctor better be heading into our room here pretty soon. Tate finally caved and crawled up on my lap and started to close his eyes. That's when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought of this:

And then this:

I was fretting about an ear infection and a few extra minutes. These mamas are fearing for their children's lives, and the hours and days they are waiting to be seen by a doctor. When Tate crawled up on my lap and went to sleep, I didn't worry that he wasn't going to wake up again. When the doctor came in to look at him, I didn't worry that we wouldn't have the money to pay for the prescription. I didn't worry that the pharmacy wouldn't have the medicine he needed.

Yep, perspective. I needed that.

And seriously, please pray with me for the people of Haiti who are now fighting with a cholera epidemic. That is what God hit me with as I was waiting with my sweet baby in the doctor's office. Never in my life have I been so thankful that my child only had an ear infection.

And behind door #2...

Well, I would very strongly recommend not redecorating 2 bedrooms at the same time. Actually, I highly discourage it. Don't do it. OK, I will stop saying that. Regardless, we have 3 very happy children, and thanks to some well-timed intervention from some extended family members, Buck and I are still very happily married! Home improvements are challenging. Here is the Little Miss's room. As per her request, it is PINK.

Pretty much every little thing in Zoe's room has some significance. I love that. Although I love that she and the boys shared a room for so long and were so cozy together, she never really had a place to put her "stuff" and a place to call her own. So now she does. A very pink place. :) I thought of going through and explaining all the significance of everything but some of it is personal to her and I didn't want to share too much. So you can see it but maybe not know what it all means.

Here is her whole long beautiful name--Zoe Tamenech Courtney--Zoe is the name we picked for her and it means "life" in Greek. We love that. Tamenech is the name her Ethiopian family gave her and it means "she is believed". Courtney is after Buck's sister Jill Courtney who is our very special "Aunt G". She traveled with us to Ethiopia to bring Zoe home.

And one green wall to balance some of the pinkness. :) The little dress hanging on the mirror is what she was wearing in the goodbye ceremony that we had at her care center in Ethiopia. Truly one of the most emotion-filled days of my entire life. She was such a teeny tiny little peanut and what an awesome privilege and joy and responsibility we were being given on that day by receiving the gift of our daughter wearing that gorgeous little dress. I love to look at it and remember. Zoe looks at it and wants to put it on her dolls. :) That's a 4-year-old for you. No more room redecorations for a long time. Hope you have enjoyed!

The big reveal

Nope it's not as big as Extreme Home Makeover (why do I cry every single time at that show??) but it is a great accomplishment. It was a true team effort, working on these kids' bedrooms. We are all--me, Buck, and the kids!--very happy with how they turned out. And very relieved that the upstairs is no longer in chaos. Well, it's still chaos sometimes, but at least not because we are redecorationg. Here you go...

Remember the infamous laundry post from July? Here is that picture again (because I know you wanted to see it again). Yes, I have lost my "room dedicated to laundry." Which is probably a good thing.

Here is another "before" picture. I almost missed the before pic because Buck had already painted but nothing else had been done yet.

And....drumroll....AFTER!

And a few more after shots:

DONE!!! Phew. Tomorrow's post? Pics from Zoe's new room. Make sure you have sunglasses handy--it's a little bright. :) Happy Tuesday, friends.

Our Theme + a "Dash" of Charlie

Well, friends, I told you we sort of had a theme again. Here it is: Scooby-Doo and the Gang! No one is ever required or cajoled into participating in a group theme in our family--it's just worked out that way (and Tate doesn't have a say yet! Lucky for me!) So there was one of our brood that decided to assert his independence this year...

And none of us were surprised that it was this guy! Our independent INCREDIBLE Charlie as Dash was perfect!

There was a lot of cuteness going on between these two--Scooby and Shaggy are best friends, you know.

Right about now was when Tate had had enough of the hood! He was a good little sport.

Oh and the sassy Miss Daphne...here she is posing to figure out a mystery....hmmmm....

Dad says "YES!" It's time to get some candy!

And off they went....

And our little Dash was true to his name and boy, when there is candy involved, he can DASH!

We hope you had a wonderful Halloween!!