sailin' with mickey

well the time has come! we are leaving tomorrow to head for Port Canaveral where we will board the Disney Wonder! as you can imagine, ella is beside herself. this morning she was saying "mommy, mommy, one more week! one more week!!" and i said, "no, sweetie, one more DAY!" she then went running down the hall jumping up and down yelling, "one more day! one more day!" i think i'm more excited just to see my kid's reactions to the ship and everything they are going to experience in the next week!

this week has been crazy with my computer failing on me again for 3 days, wrapping up things for our women's retreat, washing clothes, packing, packing and more packing, etc etc! it's great to know that after a year of planning...the time has finally come. and i still can't believe that my dad is treating all of us to such a fantastic vacation! i feel so blessed and i'm so grateful.

i will be back after a week with many photos and stories to tell i'm sure!

conversations with a four year old

one of my new favorite things is when ella will crawl in bed with me in the mornings and we chat. this morning she crawled in and acted scared. this is how it went:
her: mommy, the rain...it makes me worried!
me: why sweetie? why are you worried?
her: it just makes me all worried.
me: but the rain comes from God...he is watering the grass and trees for us and that's not scary. so why are you worried?
her: monsters mommy!

for some reason she associates rain with monsters.
the conversation went on...

her: mommy, why can't we get snow every day?
me: because it's not cold enough where we live.
her: but mommy, it is cold outside!
me: but it's not quite cold enough.
her: but mommy, i really want it to snow!

that shows her argumentative side.
and then this happened...its a continued conversation that we started the other day...

her: mommy, i just really don't want to get bigger.
me: sweetie, i don't want you to get bigger either. will you just stay little for me?
her: but i can't stay little. i will get bigger.
me: but you will always be my little girl.
her: but i just really don't want to get bigger. ew, mommy, what's that stinky smell? it smells like your bad breath!

ha ha ha....i was wondering when i would ever hear her first comment about stinky morning breath!! of course, i had to argue with her and tell her that her breath didn't smell that great either when she wakes up!!

i love these conversations...i wish i could remember them word for word. i know i will quickly forget how sweet her little voice is and how cute it is when she gets words mixed up....like calling marshmallows mushrooms. she is precious.

first haircut

a couple of weeks ago i decided that it was time to cut evan's hair....the very little hair that he has! so i don't even know if what we did would qualify as a hair cut. for those of you who know our little bud, you know he doesn't have much hair. but the little bit that he has grown over the past 2 years was starting to grow over his little ears. so it literally lasted, oh, about 1 minute, maybe less. a snip snip on one side and then the other. whaalaa...done. i'm not even going to post the pictures we took because you would probably look at them and say "huh?" (ok, grammar problem, i don't know whether to put a . there or not?! oh well.) you really couldn't even tell it was cut. but mommy knew and i need to document this monumental occasion!

valentine's and cowboys

at around 6:30 last night i was hurrying to walmart to buy the kiddos some valentine's prizes. nothing like waiting til the last minute. but they enjoyed their little valentine monster that sings and dances and lights up. so it was worth the trip to the store filled with madness.

my hubby made me a mixed cd of fun songs for valentine's. very sweet and thoughtful, huh? all he got was a card from me. and he is in bed sick right now. so a super exciting valentine's day around here.

and last night the kids were playing dress up with some new dress up clothes that a friend passed on to us. evan finally has some non-princess clothes to wear! he looks so cute in this cowboy vest and hat. and you can't be a cowboy or cowgirl without boots...even if they are rain boots!

counting down the days

4 more days of torturing my children with eye drops. that already seems like way too long. they both have pink eye. 2 drops in each eye 3 times a day. lovely. evan is manageable...he is small enough to hold him down and only one of his eyes are infected. ella on the other hand is a nightmare. i had to give her the drops yesterday by myself. i went from sweet, understanding, loving mommy to mean, angry, forceful mommy in a matter of 30 seconds. she was uncontrollable...it might even be worse than her fear of shots. we even picked out yummy mini-sized candy bars for a special treat if she did a good job. by the way she responds to the drops, you would think that we were torturing her. it is awful. so 4 more days of this just sounds delightful. ha.

and we are also counting down the days til our disney cruise. actually, ella is probably the most excited out of any of us. EVERY day since before christmas she has been asking me when february is coming so we can go on the disney cruise. and now that february is here, the excitement is rising! she was all worried about having pink eye because she thought she wouldn't be able to go. i hope all the sickies will be gone by the time the 24th comes around!! 16 more days til vacation!! now THAT IS delightful!

**update: thanks to my friend, katie, i tried giving ella the drops with her eyes closed and letting the drops roll in when she blinks and it worked! she didn't even cry! i was so proud...and she was too! (and thanks, tiina, for letting me know the same tip! i had already tried it when i saw your comment!)

more asparagus

daddy cooked dinner last night because mommy has a cold and her energy had run out long before it was even time to think about what to make for dinner! he added a new twist to dinner last night. asparagus. i've never cooked it because i'm not a huge fan. i tend to do that...not cook things i don't like! which means we have broccoli A LOT around here and definitely no green beans. anyway, at first ella was very hesitant to eat it. but then i reminded her that oobi likes it. it was the FIRST thing she ate on her plate. no, not the second or third or last thing she ate...but the FIRST. freakin amazing! and to top it off...when she ate the asparagus on her plate, she said "more asparagus, more asparagus!!" i was thinking i needed to clean out my ears...was i hearing her right? so...way to go daddy....kickin it up a notch in the walker kitchen with a new veggie!

do everything without complaining?

for real? i find myself often getting upset with ella for complaining and get so frustrated at how much she does it. funny thing is that i do it just as much if not MORE. after 12 days of being computerless, i'm back. and honestly, i am struggling with getting back in the blogging groove. i got a little used to the break and haven't felt very inspired to write. although i was struggling without my lifeline, i now seem to be struggling with it as well! how ironic. the past couple weeks have helped me to see even more of how i hate when things don't go my way! there was MUCH grumbling and complaining in this heart of mine when i was having to spend hours (literally) on the phone with my internet provider...only then to find out that it was still my computer that was giving me trouble. and there was much complaining when i had to take 5 trips back and forth to the apple service provider to get it worked on. and i was so discontent not having my calendar, address book, etc that i rely on day in and day out. i felt so lost. anyway, i am thankful to have it back...but now my internet is not working as fast and my mouse is acting all funky. so here i go complaining again!! is my heart ever satisfied?

all this helps me to really see, just by using this silly example of my computer woes, how unsatisfied and discontent i can be. life would be more simple without all the stuff that fills our lives. stuff that seems like a must but really is not necessary. stuff that makes life easier and more convenient. so God has used this scenario in my life to show me, yet again, my sin. my love for other things. and he has reminded me where my satisfaction needs to be. in Him who gives me everything i need. the things that last.

on a more fun note, we had a walker family superbowl party tonight. we usually have friends over, but not tonight. we had a spread of food on the coffee table and the kids loved it. daddy made his annual rotel cheese dip with sausage and we made pigs in a blanket and made cream cheese apple dip with apples and grapes. i think evan ate about 10 pigs in a blanket. they loved watching the commercials and at times were on the floor laughing. ella kept asking us to let her see them again (she knows our DVR capabilities!). and when i was putting ella to bed, she was all sad that she didn't get to see the end of the game. i told her i would let her know who wins. she said, "mommy, will they get ribbons?" and i told her they would get a big trophy and superbowl rings. she said "maybe the rings will have a bowl on them and the trophy will have a bowl on it!" well i guess that would be a great idea and it makes sense to me too since it is the superBOWL!