thankful

so. to follow suit with blogger friends and with the season (tomorrow!!) we do want to express all we are thankful for. of course, we’re thankful for our wonderful family and friends, safety, health and country. we’re thankful for the stuff we have that most people in the world can’t even dream of and that 99% of our problems are “rich people problems.” (< if you have a problem with this statement, check this out) above all, we are thankful for the grace and peace granted us through our Lord Jesus.

here are excerpts from a favorite song of ours. it truly encompasses our feelings this day and year. i hope you’ll take a couple minutes to read and consider these words.

Even when pieces are neatly in place
A skip in my step and a smile on my face
Still I have fears that I cannot escape
And I’m just so thankful for You.

Time marches quickly and seasons pass by
As the world You created just seems to unwind
I look beyond to a much better life
And I’m just so thankful for You.

The love flows free, but You dearly paid
I got off cheap and You took the blame
There’s only one thing I can say. I’m thankful, I’m thankful.

I don’t deserve You
And I never will…

- Thankful, Jill Phillips

aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr

the above title is a pirate’s call in case you don’t get it. maddox is supposed to wear an eye patch for an hour every day to help his lazy/drifting eyes, also apparently called strabismus. this has been a major feat for us to get where we don’t have to hold down his hands as he is crying because of it. he is finally used to it and does yank it off periodically, but now it is more like a joke. we have achieved this feat by bribing him with his favorite show, and the only one he’ll watch. (it’s an obscure kids show way in the sepths of the on demand menu. you’ve never heard of it.) he asks for it a hundred times a day and then says “eye? eye?” like “I’ll wear my patch if you let me watch the show!” ANYWAY – i just think he is so cute all zoned out with his patch on. we still are not up to an hour – more like 30 mins max but we’ll take it. and one piece of advice – if you can avoid going to the eye doctor for your one year old, by all means do. as fun as they try to make it, it was not a pleasant experience and i’ll leave it at that.

**updated** guy’s weekend

so i need to update this post. turns out the toy i described below as indestructible does have its limits. i stand by the recommendation since it made it this long but Maddox finally managed to knock a wire loose and cause the sound to stop working. so hears a pic of my first opportunity to fix a toy for the boy. felt good.

ok. so joy is out of town this weekend with Jess and friends for the last big blow-out before Reed and Jessica get married. they will probably go wild and crazy and . . . go out to dinner and girl talk about weddings. so the Madd man and I are taking over. i had thought i would also take over joy’s blogging duties and chronicle our guy’s weekend with lots of pics and short hilarious stories, but, of course, the camera is with joy. duh! nonetheless i’ve been meaning to post about this certain toy belonging to Maddox. it’s just a ball that plays a dozen songs and lights up while the music plays. it doesn’t look like much and is highly annoying . . . BUT, you have to admire the thing because it is purely indestructible. i’ve seen maddox put it through the normal stress tests and i was impressed then, but now he has taken it outdoors, lifted above his head and thrown it down repeatedly with all his might against the slate floor of our porch. the most damage he has been able to do is make it skip a song or temporarily stop the music. but no matter how sure i am that he has finally killed it, i push the button, and it starts like nothing happened. so do yourself a favor – $11 at a toysrus near you.

sibling love

maddox was snuggling up to his soon-to-be brother or sister the other day and was laughing. i don’t know that he gets it at all, but we like to think that he does and he’s excited.

walk in the park

it is and has been a gorgeous fall here in atlanta. we are so blessed to live in a neighborhood with tons of trees and natural areas and also a lake with a dam that is so picturesque. we’ve been spending lots of time outside relishing it all. here is a slice in one of these fall days.

silver lake

explaining why we can't swim with the ducks today

walking across the dam

the deal with the pink pig

call for comments: will someone please enlighten me as to:

WHAT IS The pink pig? do kids ride? do adults ride? WHAT is the actual ride? i cannot find this basic info on the web. only extremely sentimental accounts of people who have made cross country journeys with their kids each year to ride this mysterious ride that is always hidden in a bubble-tent on the macy’s parking deck about 5 minutes from our house. i have never even seen it!

halloween full of adventure

here was our big adventure of halloween night – a haircut!

so, yes, i am the horrible mom whose thought process was “if my son doesn’t want to put on a costume, would go on INTO people’s houses and steal things if a door was opened to him and could care less about candy (for now!) then we’re not doing it this year.” i thought it made total sense. next year, we’ll go … if we have to

i finally have gotten lots of recent pics of our other recent, equally-stellar adventures! here are … 18 months, some great portraits that my mom took of him, and 19 months pics! (new cousin, thomas’s 1st b’day, ella’s 2nd b’day, the zoo, and plenty of gorgeous fall days)