Soak up some Beckham.

If I didn't have this inability to stand up straight, look down, and still see my feet (meaning, the belly bump has shown UP), I would think that I woke up this morning in early October... or maybe one of those non-rainy mornings in May... The air was per-fect. Once upon a time a few years ago, I spent a summer in NYC. I would wake up and walk to work, and the air felt just like it did today. If there's anything that makes me want to do full Sound-of-Music-Maria-in-the-mountains-twirls in my driveway, it's when the morning feels crispy and fresh like that. 

I took B to the park this morning to soak it up. 

We had the whole place to ourselves, and I was thinking about how nice it was and how glad I was that there wasn't a big group of big kids to play too rough and make my job as nearby mom difficult. I was also thinking about how it was a couple of years ago when we were getting ready for B to come, but I was clinging on to my last few days with only JB. I find myself in that same place... wanting to soak up these last months before we add a new playmate to the mix. 

Funny story of the day: We were on the way to school, and Beckham started yelling, "horsey! horsey! horsey!" Because we had just passed someone's yard with no horses in sight, I asked JB for clarification. Jane Bradley said he was saying what I thought, and I joked with her that I didn't know why he would say that because there weren't any horses... She said, "Well, mom, he probably used his best eyes to see it." She completely believed him. Then she asked him what color was it? Red? Yellow? Blue? Orange? Yes, confirmed Beckham. JB said, "He says it was an orange horsey. I'm sure he used his best eyes to see it was a horsey, and then he used his regular eyes to see what color it was." 


Last night, we went out for hibachi. (Fried rice is on the list of some of my most frequently craved foods this time around.) Brad sat on the end with Beckham, so he could rescue him from the crazy man throwing knives and setting the table on fire. 

I took B to male wonderland, aka Lowes. How do they all love this place so much? I'm convinced it comes on the y chromosome... He wanted to meet every tractor. He wanted to know why they wouldn't drive around the store... Imagining that makes me laugh...

This is what happened when I made him leave after he drove them for a very long time...

Want to gush? Look at what I caught this morning...

I hope you have a cozy weekend... And I hope the fresh air makes you this happy...

Love LOVE...

I'm am love LOVING finding little moments in the day to decide to keep forever. Love LOVE is what we say when we love something more than chocolate or gummy bears or fancy shoes. Jane Bradley loves to ask me, "... but mom, do you love LOVE it?" And at night, when I remind her again that I love her, I often add about 50 other loves after the first one. Just so she knows, you know, it's some SERIOUS love I've got goin' on. She loves it and shows me that Madden Happy smile like the one on the header right now. And I'm a little addicted to that smile...


One of those moments happened at dinner last night. First of all, I am on a fabulous roll with my organizing. My newly organized pantry, I'm convinced, would break the repin record on Pinterest. Or maybe, it's just that it was so bad before that now it just looks awesome comparatively. I don't really care - it's a check off the bucket list. 


One of the organizing decisions was to burn the candles I've been saving for the future to burn. So I've decided that now is the future. Jane Bradley asks me every time I light a candle if she can blow it out. I usually say sure, but not until after dinner, and after dinner yesterday, Brad got involved and they all had fun blowing. I grabbed my camera because this was a minute that I wanted to keep.

On my cul de sac, we talk all the time about the truth in the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." I will just say that I have won the neighborhood lottery... I love that I am surrounded on all sides by parents who are very involved in raising their children and looking out for mine. It's a comfortable place to be. Most afternoons everyone is outside watching the kids play and catching up on the activities of lately. I want to keep these days... There will be a day in the future where they will move on, they won't need us outside to referee or pitch baseballs or keep them out of the street. They will all be piled up in a vehicle driving around or hanging out in someone's gameroom... Maybe at that time the parents on the street should form a prayer group instead of a supervising group...

Look at Brad's hands...

Look at Beckham's... Man, seriously... he is so cute... I know I'm biased :)

Oh yeah. Did you notice JB's lips? This is not the result of a pink popsicle. She went to the dentist today, and the highlight of the trip, as it is every time, is choosing a prize off of the prize wall. I could see this coming from across the room. Jane Bradley runs over to the prize wall, and her eyes get a little wider, and she looks sideways a couple of times, and then asks the hygienist, "What are those?" The hygienist says, "Oh, that's mood lipstick. It changes colors with your mood!" JB looked at the lipstick like she had just discovered a genuine diamond in a Cubic Zirconia thrift shop. She picked it up, turned around to me, and squealed like she couldn't contain herself. My eyes were also wide... I really wasn't sure what this stuff was going to do, or if I had any control over this at all... 


Two seconds out the door, and she had attempted to put it on blind. The stuff was all over her face like a clown who's been working all day... I just let her wear it. We went for our usual after-dentist ice-cream plus mood-changing lipstick. Every few seconds she asked, "What color is it now? How about now? What color is it now?" It wouldn't come off with makeup remover before we went out to dinner tonight, but luckily, it did come off in the tub afterwards.

Another sweet moment in the village was this one - mom comes home from work and little legs can't run fast enough... 

Let's just say that I think my fortune cookie has been reading my blog...

The dish of the moment.

I was listening to my morning dose of KLOVE today, and the dj commented about seeing something in a restaurant that caught her eye. The specials du jour weren't really du jour. They were the "specials of the moment." She asked the chef about it, and the chef said that she doesn't really like to commit to more than that. She likes to change things up, and she doesn't want to be locked in to a weekly special menu. She's into the moment. The point was that the dj began to think about what it really means to live in the moment, and really learn to appreciate the moments in each day. Stop worrying about all of the days to come and appreciate the moments of now. I've been thinking about this lately, and writing and reflecting has let me really soak up some fully loaded moments...


However, not all of the moments lately have been hearts, flowers, and puppies. Note to self: 1 parent, a 5 year-old, a 2 year-old, a pregnancy, and a loaded to the gills Chuck-E-Cheese do not make an abundance of pleasant moments... for the parent, at least. The kids thought it was a whirlwind of fun. I was wishing for some sort of second trimester cocktail... 


Mostly because Chuck E Cheese is a melting pot of different parenting styles. Those who walk around and monitor their kids, and those who park in a seat and let the other parents referee the seated parents' wild animals who repeatedly try to break in line and steal my 2 year old's coins. I don't love being in that pot. It stresses me out, and I begin to wish we had gone to the park... or stayed home. Chuck E Cheese is way better on days when school is  in.


But kids love special no-school days with something out-of-the-ordinary, and I really had the urge to deliver. I took a few shots when I could... I think they really enjoyed themselves.

Jane Bradley in the monster truck...
B decided he was terrified of all of the trucks and cars for some reason?
I attribute most of that due to how crowded it was.

Beckham parked himself at this game. He seemed to think the point was to
just keep adding coins. He bought so many games that I had to stand there
and punch the button when he was done so he could get his tickets...

This ride was out of order, but B didn't care! 

This is what you get when you ask your child to giggle
for too many photos...

So those are the highlights of the day, and now I need to go to bed.

special birthday weekend and banana week.

We had a special weekend. Saturday, we piled into the car and drove to the big, wide, Mississippi Delta. My great-grandmother lives there, and her family from near and far met to celebrate her 99th birthday. She truly is an amazing woman! She knows everything that's going on with everyone, and she love LOVES a big party... Maybe I come by it naturally? 


Her name is Amelia Beckham - this is where Beckham got the Beckham. Here she is with me as a baby - isn't she beautiful?

Amelia Beckham, aka- Maw-Maw, and me

Here are some shots from her party. There was a special feeling in the air on Saturday. We were doing something special, and we were part of a special group. I want my children to have the same appreciation for family that we partygoers felt this weekend. 

Fast Forward 30 years!

Janie, Beth, and little Marguerite

Maw-Maw getting an update from a certain great-grandson-in-law

Nanny and Ame

Jane Bradley made her great-great Grandmother this picture for her birthday. I love the wheels on her neon green wheelchair. She also put her in a red dress because she thought it would be her favorite. Seriously, sometimes I just can't get enough of this girl...

Jane Bradley's birthday gift - a drawing of herself with her great-great-grandmother

This next photo I love because it shows 5 generations! I once was the youngest in a five-generation photo, and now JB will carry on the tradition.

From left: Amelia Beckham, Uncle Buck Beckham,
Clare Luke (my grandmother), Jane Bradley, Me, Nanny (my mom) 

After the road trip, the rest of the weekend was calm with various moments of silly and chaotic attempts to organize (seriously, this process makes me feel like I need to channel someone else for this - it is me overriding every normal part of my personality trying to produce some type of order... very tough).


I caught a sweet moment - Jane Bradley helping her favorite super-hero pull some stickers out of a sticker book. Soak it up, Lacey. That's what I keep telling myself...

Super-hero's need a little help sometimes too...

Jane Bradley borrows a few of Beckham's stickers to scare her mom...

The weekend ended with normal baths and a little time-killing before bed. Brad adds the silly to the normal routines, and lets the kids play peek-a-boo with themselves in the mirror. Dear Jane Bradley, marry a guy who adds some silly to the vanilla in life. It makes life so much sweeter...

On the way out of the day, we took some pictures to make a photo-update of the newest Madden. According to the baby-gurus on the internet, he or she is as big as a banana - I decided to have a little fun with it so the kids could get the idea... They just wanted to eat them :)