Toy Train

One of our friends is quite a talented photographer and videographer — she made this video of Jane Anne on Sunday while playing around with a new camera.

It was S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F….

A few Saturdays ago, Bill, Jane Anne, and I all went to Dallas to see the Mary Poppins musical.  We left Molly in Abilene, and she had a fabulous day with Nana and Pop-Pop.

We let JA choose where we wanted to eat, and she choose a sandwich shop called Potbelly’s, mainly because they have fun drinks.

About to enjoy a grape Stewarts

T

Loving on Mom

After lunch we headed to Fair Park where the musical was held and let Jane Anne get her chance to meet Big Tex:

The big guy himself

Trying out the foot massaging chair at the fair

Then we got to the big event — Mary Poppins!  It was so amazing and completely magical!  The actor who played Bert opened London and New York, and the actor playing Mary opened New York, so it was quite a cast.  At one point when Bert is tap dancing on the ceiling in “Step in Time,” Bill leans over and says to JA, “Bert is a really talented tap dancer,” and JA responds “yeah, but not as good as me.”  So much for raising a humble child.

At the end of the play, Mary flies over the audience.  It took my breath away.

It was a wonderful day!!

Colors

I’ll post in the next few days about Molly’s self-inflicted haircut, Jane Anne’s new lost tooth, and our trip to Mary Poppins, but for now, here is a look at what I got to see on my trip to Michigan last week:

I went to a conference for a few days in East Lansing, which is stunningly beautiful.  Mommy’s need downtime to be better mommies, and this was very much needed.  I have so much more to give to Bill and the girls when I can recharge and not be needed every moment of the day.  Bill makes it a point to do really fun Daddy things while I’m gone — like make chocolate chip pancakes for dinner — so, aside from the hair cutting incident, they had a great time.

I lived in Wisconsin for two years, and I’m not a big fan of cold weather, so I was glad to leave and head back to the warmer climes of Texas, but every fall I miss seeing the leaves change like they did in Wisconsin.  (And then the Texas winter comes along where we have 60 degree days in February and I get over missing Wisconsin pretty quickly!)

Indescribable

Last night, psycho dog (aka Daisy) barked from 3-5am.  This morning, Molly woke up in a less than felicitous mood.  From 7-8 she cried, threw fits, and generally inflicted misery on those around her.  (This is not all that unusual for Molly in the morning, but her mommy who had little sleep was not in the mood to deal with it either.)  So, I’m sitting on the couch watching her scream, wondering how on earth we’re going to make it until nap time, and if nap time can happen at 9am.  Suddenly, she calms down and crawls in my lap.  We’re sitting there snuggling and in the background, Jane Anne’s iPod, which had gone off an hour before as her alarm, is playing Chris Tomlin’s “Indescribable.”  The chorus goes like this:

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

It was a transcendent moment for me.  I think we’ll survive until nap time.