Funny stories

Here are the latest "Eli and Landon Stories" for your enjoyment:

"Really Amazing Trick"
 While I was somewhere else in the house, Eli and Landon screamed for me to come into the bathroom to see their "really amazing trick" (these were their exact words.) I was, of course, immediately nervous and went in there, prepared for just about anything.

I found this:

So naturally, I took a picture and posted it on all the appropriate social networking sites. They were quite pleased with themselves...until they couldn't get down on their own. Eva's comment was, "that's really funny until they try to do it soaking wet and bust their heads open." That might be a good point.



"Landon Rebukes With Scripture"
I've been doing some simple scripture memory work every week with the boys. I've been quite surprised at their little minds and the amount of things they can remember. Well, one very long and tiring day in Lubbock with all three kids by myself and several instances of discipline with the same offender, I lost my cool in a moment of frustration and I yelled at Landon. (No judging people...it happens.) As soon as the harsh words came out of my mouth, Landon says, "MOM, remember? Do unto others as you would have them do to you?!" I probably should have been humbled by him, but instead, it pretty much fueled my anger. Needless to say, "Children obey your parents, in the Lord, for this is right" will be the next verse on our list.


"Landon's Hand Has A Mind Of It's Own"
If you're a parent, you know that kids have distinct cries. So, when I hear Harper's "I have just suffered an injustice" cry, I immediately start interrogating the suspects. I was in the kitchen and I hear Harper start wailing, so I go in the living room to find Harper and Landon standing there. I asked, "Landon, what happened to Harper?" He pursed his lips, furrowed his eyebrows and looked around as he said, "hmmmm, let me see here." (Long pause) "She got hit," he said. I naturally asked who Harper "got hit" by. Landon raised his right hand, looked over at it, and matter-of-factually said, "this." I almost lost it right there. His whole "I think I'm going to outsmart mom by acting like my hand hit Harper and I had nothing to do with it" approach just seemed really comical. We had a little talk about how his hand is part of him and HE is responsible for what it does, so he better get it under control fast.


"Peter Pan Can Fly"
Eli and Landon have reallllly been into Peter Pan for about the last six months. What's funny is that they had never seen the movie, but we have the book and they want to read it every.single.night. It's super long, so we just paraphrase most of it. Combine their love for Peter Pan with their love of pretending and sometimes I just don't know if they can tell reality from fiction. They truly believe they ARE Peter Pan. So, one day, I hear a big thud, a moment of silence, and then the ridiculous wailing ensued. Of course, I rush in there to find Eli with a big goose egg on his head. He had stood on the end of the bed and jumped off and landed head first...trying to fly. All he kept saying over and over while I rocked him was, "But, Mom, Peter Pan can fly!" I could not have been less surprised by this whole situation. My children take make believe to a whole new level. 

"The Roller Coaster"
We took a little trip to Sea World back in June and ever since then, Eli and Landon, continue to act like car rides are roller coaster rides. Again, with the imagination...there is never a dull moment. And Eli and Landon have plenty of imagination. I thought this would eventually get old and die down, but this picture is just from a couple of weeks ago.

"Harper Loves Undies"
Harper recently went through a stage (that she is just about out of, thank goodness) where she LOVED underwear. It didn't matter who it belonged to or if it was dirty or clean. In fact, it seemed she preferred dirty because they tend to be more accessible around here. She would dig through hampers, check the bathroom floors, or find them in the laundry room. I mean, she had a serious fetish people. Mostly, this just completely grossed me out. No explanation needed there. Here is a picture of her with two pairs of Eli and Landon's dirty underwear layered on over her pajamas. Kids are so weird. Or maybe just mine are.

Life Through My IPhone

I would have to say that nothing better represents our lives as a whole better than the pictures on my phone. I always have it with me to capture the little things, the funny things, the things that appall me, and even the slightly dangerous (but not too dangerous that I can't take a picture real fast) things.

So since I just downloaded 234 pictures, here are the best of the last few months.

Harper is still not amused by all my picture taking.

We still frequent the doctor's offices.

 

Eli and Landon are almost never themselves. 

Some of their favorite people to be are cowboys or Peter Pan. 

 

We still like to get messy.

 Harper and I still hang out most Sundays in the nursery.

Shopping is always a ton of fun with these three.

We love story time (when we are all well enough to go).

Harper still LOVES her daddy and greets him every time he comes in the door.

Sometimes we hang out in our pajamas, building forts, on into the afternoon.

Dustin and I went on a little trip by ourselves (first time in two years) to Fredericksburg. 

It was wonderful.

 Sometimes I'm a really awesome mom and give my baby mini marshmallows in the car so that she'll be happy.

Harper likes to make phone calls during church...on her thermometer.

Harper is SUCH a night owl, so we just let her stay up. She's never cranky and just plays by herself without her brothers taking all the toys away from her. She's such a sweetheart late at night.

 The boys and I have been doing a little preschool each day. It's amazing how quickly they learn!

 We love the science museum in Lubbock and stop by every time we're there. It's completely child-friendly and it helps get a little energy out after spending a lot of time in the car.

We went to a couple of Ira football games this year and the sweet cheerleaders let Harper and Kassidy cheer with them. 

I still seriously love this baby.

 And I will still do just about anything for a little down-time. Even if it means letting Eli and Landon style my hair. It's almost relaxing...until they gouge my eye out.

 We are loving Christmas-time this year. Here we're watching Polar Express and eating popcorn.

And by Harper's insistence, we have begun to use the toilet. Without any prompting or training whatsoever, she requested to get on the potty and proceeded to go #2! Home-girl is a prodigy!

So that was pretty long, but that's our life through the lens of an IPhone.

Eli and Landon Turn 4!

For the first time ever, I celebrated a birthday without inviting 100 people, slaving over handmade details, and using every spare moment of several weeks to prepare. It was kind of by chance that it happened like it did. It was kind of a procrastination meets low-energy meets an I just want to enjoy this situation. And it was totally liberating.

Eli and Landon's birthday fell on a Monday this year, so the Saturday before, we had a small family party with just the five of us, my mom, Mike, Katelyn, and Neva. We had a laid back day, ate their favorite meal for lunch (One Pot Pasta), opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. Then we just played with their new toys and hung out together. That night, we went to the Big Bash at the Preston's, which is a fish fry, hayride, singing, and hot chocolate kind of gathering each year. We sang to them again out there and they had a blast riding the thrilling hayride over and over again.

On Monday, we invited Eli and Landon's friends from their Bible class over for a small party. We had pizza and cupcakes and opened presents and played. It was laid back and fun!

This year, for their birthday, the boys got: GeoTrax, Board Games, HorriBalls (don't ask), Clothes (always a favorite of mine), and a Puppy Dog (more on that later).

I always love celebrating my boys and there is just something about that day in history that makes me so conflicted with joy/thanksgiving and a little bit of sadness as I remember just how I felt the moments leading up to Eli and Landon entering this world. And pretty much the whole next month while they stayed in the hospital. Looking back, I now realize that it wasn't quite as scary as I thought at the time, although for a first-time mom it was pretty much terrifying. They were pretty stable and just needed time to grow and learn to eat. And I also realize that the experiences with Eli and Landon were invaluable preparation as we faced what we have with Harper. And for that reason (and others), I count our rough start with our boys a blessing in disguise. They have taught me a lot in their four short years and these precious boys are definitely two of my greatest blessings.

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby boys.

The pictures are seriously lacking for some reason. I didn't get any pictures with Nemo, Grammy, G-Pa, and Katelyn, or with Me and Dustin, or with their friends at the party. I'm just not really sure what I was doing the whole time. I took the whole "laid back" thing a little too far, I guess. 

 We sang Happy Birthday to them individually this year.

Of course, I forgot to take any pictures once their friends arrived because I'm really on top of things like that. 

A Little Trip To Wyoming

The summer of 2010, a sweet couple and their brand new baby girl moved to Snyder to work with the church here and get a little experience as an intern preacher. They had visited several times and stayed with us during one of those visits, so we had already decided that we loved them. They got here and dove right into their work, while balancing their new addition at home as well. The internship program lasts for two years, and we knew at the end of that time, they would be moving away from us to start their own mission work or to become a local preacher with another congregation. Even the knowledge that they would be leaving us soon couldn't stop this congregation from falling in love with them. I had great plans of all of the fun things we would do and how we could get together often, since we were both staying home with our babies. But life had other plans for us and the next two years went something like this:

Schumachers: new full time job, new baby, find out nine months later they are expecting again, had a few complications coupled with some bed-rest during the pregnancy, deliver another beautiful baby girl, life with two babies 16 months apart is completely overwhelming and there is absolutely no time for friendship, consume themselves with working out the details for mission work, discover that God has other plans for them, focus on interviewing for preaching positions in the U.S., move their family to Wyoming.

Grigsbys: find out I'm expecting, find out about Harper's heart, deliver and spend a month in the NICU, heart surgery number one, life with three little ones under the age of three is completely overwhelming and there is absolutely no time for friendship, heart surgery number two, and all of a sudden we're saying good-bye to this family that just arrived (seems like).

So, maybe we didn't have tons of playdates or double-dates or even conversations that weren't constantly being interrupted, but I grew to love this family, their sense of humor, their compassion, their love of all things Aggie (well, maybe that's just Rance), but most of all, their love for God and desire to do His will. And their girls. You can't help but love their girls. 

So, they took a job in Wyoming. (I mean...could you get any further?) And right after they left, Rance contacted me about flying up there for Alissa's birthday in September. I think he knew that things would be rough for her as she adjusted to life away from everyone she knows, starting all over in a new place, and having two that definitely still qualify as babies.

I, of course, jumped on the opportunity. And I wasn't even nervous about flying with Harper for her first time. She's always happy and pretty easy going, especially when she has my undivided attention.

I should have been.

The first flight went okay. She was a little on edge, but settled down once we got going. We had a layover in Denver that was pretty long, and since Harper is seemingly incapable of sleeping anywhere but in a bed, I had almost no hope for a nap for her. So we walked the huge airport, we rode the moving sidewalks hundreds of times (that's not a joke), we never stopped moving for almost 4 hours. Our plane was delayed and since it was a mechanical issue, there was no way of knowing if/when it would be fixed. By the fifth hour in Denver, Harper started to have screaming episodes. I could get her calmed down relatively quickly, but they became more frequent and it was taking longer and longer to calm her. There is absolutely nowhere to go in an airport that isn't among thousands of people, so I felt like I might as well have been on a stage, because we had quite the audience. 

I was completely exhausted, extremely frustrated with our plane situation, and just about on the brink of tears when it happened. Harper started screaming and I did everything I knew to do to try and comfort her and make her happy, but there wasn't anything that was working. She was tired, frustrated, over-stimulated, and hungry, but wouldn't eat. I approached the counter in sheer desperation, begging them to tell me something. The not so helpful attendant informed me I could switch to the last flight out to Worland which was leaving in two hours, or wait this one out and see if it would leave sooner. If my original plane didn't end up going, the next flight out was the next day at 5:30 p.m. The idea of staying in that airport fr 24 more hours made me completely suicidal, so I asked to be switched to the flight that was probably/hopefully going to leave tonight. This whole conversation is going on while Harper is screaming uncontrollably, flailing her arms and legs, and swatting at my face....all while hundreds of people are staring at me. After securing my seat on the new plane (who would want to get on a plane that has had mechanical issues all day anyway?), I gathered up all our stuff and headed towards the stores. I bought fruit, chocolate, doritos, crackers, anything and everything that I thought Harper might eat. I spent 30 dollars on every kind of junk food available at that price-gouging store. I took Harper over to some empty chairs towards to middle of the airport and tried everything. She just got more angry. So it's been about 30 minutes straight of screaming and flailing. I didn't know what to do. I have never felt so helpless in all my life. I couldn't believe all of the people that just sat there staring at me and the pressure was just almost too much. I was begging God for mercy. 

And that's when she walked up. A middle-aged lady in a black leather jacket, with an Australian accent. She patted me on the back and said, "can I give mama a break?" She took Harper from my arms and I willingly gave her up to a stranger. (I probably would have handed her over to Lucifer himself at this point.) Harper was so completely stunned that she stopped crying and just stared back and forth at me and this stranger lady for about 10 seconds. And then her head hit the lady's shoulder. She was out. I'm talking REM sleep within five seconds. Comatose. 

I sat down on the floor and started sobbing. I couldn't even hold back the tears. And then I couldn't stop. I ugly cried for several minutes. It was such a relief to finally cry and it was completely humiliating. The exact same people who had been watching me all night were still staring at the freak show that was me, my baby, and this sweet stranger. I mean, really....how embarrassing. 

I finally pulled myself together, went on and on and on thanking this lady, told her she was an answered prayer and how I KNEW God had sent her to me, I blessed her (like I'm the pope or something) and told her I would never, ever, ever forget what she had done for me.

Might have been the lowest moment of my life, which totally sounds like an over-exaggeration, but please trust me, it was awful.

Angel lady carefully handed Harper back over to me and went on her way. I slouched down in a chair holding my sweet, sleeping baby and proceeded to eat every bit of junk food I had just bought, until it was time to board. I managed to board the plane and get through the entire flight to Wyoming without waking Harper. We ended up getting back to Rance and Alissa's house a little after midnight (1:00 a.m. Texas time). Long day.

Before the meltdown.

 After the Meltdown.

 The next day we got up, ate a delicious breakfast, packed a cooler, and headed towards the mountains. I was completely taken with the beauty of everything and asked several times out loud, "now, why do I live in west Texas again?" God's creation is beautiful!


I know it looks like Raydon is teetering on the edge of a boulder, but Rance is back there holding onto her.

 I loved watching the girls all play together.

We celebrated Alissa's birthday with steak, jalapeno poppers, potatoes, salad, and chocolate cake. SO delicious. 

The day before I left we headed back to Cody and spent the night there since our flight would be leaving at 6:30 the next morning. We shopped along their charming square, ate at a delicious sandwich shop for supper, and did a lot of laughing and talking. It was great.

 Goodbye, Wyoming. I'll be back!

 I was, understandably, very nervous about the trip home. This was compounded by the fact that Harper slept almost none at all the night before we left and then got up at 5:30 to leave for the airport. She stayed awake the whole first flight and then Denver welcomed us back. Ugh! Another long layover, but thankfully, no delays. We did a lot of walking and feeding her new baby, and bouncing her new ball (I loaded up on new toys at Wal-Mart the night before to try and ease the pain). And amazingly enough, she didn't cry one time. We boarded our second plane and she fell asleep before we even left the ground and slept the whole flight. She was such a dream!

.

People watching right outside the moving sidewalk.

So, even thought we got off to a really rough start, it ended up being a great trip! I'm SO thankful to Rance for bringing us up there to visit. It was really such a treat. And I loved their charming, little town. And their charming, little house. And the sweet people at the church. And the beauty that they get to enjoy every day. Mostly, I loved spending time with my sweet friend and her precious family.