busy doing...???

You know how you just have those days (or weeks) where you know you were really busy and you know you're exhausted, but you don't really have any idea why??? That was this week. I sat down to type thinking that surely I had all kids of excited stories since I feel so wiped out...but I'm fresh out. So, instead, I decided to pick a few favorite pics of the week...

(above) This is my new favorite pic! I'm usually on the other side of the camera, so it's quite the treat to have a picture with me and all 3 of my kiddos in it! Now, if we can just get a decent family pic one of these days...


another fun one with my bundles of joy!

OK, in the next 4 pictures, notice sweet Tucker's little face...he is smiling and I mean SMILING for the camera...what a cheese ball!





It's getting to be that time of the summer when we're ready to have Daddy home more...3 more weeks! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We definitely don't want to wish away the last 3 weeks of camp. We will be so sad to see all the staff that we have fallen so in love with leave at the end of the summer, but we will also enjoy some much-needed family time, too!




A rare moment indeed...all 3 of my children sitting still!


We had the pleasure of a visit from my grandparents...Nana and Paw-Paw. It was such a joy to have them in our home. I loved visiting with them and watching them enjoy their great-grandbabies.



A few more highlights from "week 8" before I wrap up:

Hank has learned how to use the computer! Stephanie East (who I had the pleasure of getting to see briefly last Monday...and showing her our new home!) showed Hank an educational website (Hank calls it Mrs. Stephanie's favorite website) that Walker has learned to navigate. It teaches kids about letters and sounding out words. Hank has quickly caught on! He can use the mouse to click on the "spawkwy awohs" (sparkly arrows) and navigate through the different activities on the site. Fun for hours! We're already having to limit his computer time each day. Technology these days!

Landry continues to love picking out her own clothes. Now it's the first thing she says when she gets out of bed in the mornings..."I need a shirt!" We had a traumatic moment this week...I decided it was time for bear-bear (her beloved pink teddy bear that goes everywhere with her and truly is her best friend and greatest source of comfort) to get a bath. I threw him in the washing maching one morning...BIG MISTAKE! After a little over an hour, many tears, and several failed attempts at distraction, Landry had a very happy reunion with her cleaner (and much pink-er) bear-bear.

Tucker continues to amaze me with his sweetness. Even his "bad" days are relatively easy. His first tooth is minutes away from poking through his gums. I'm still waiting for him to start crawling...now he just uses the "rock'n'roll" method of movement...he gets up on all 4's and rocks, then rolls over onto his back, then tummy, then back, then tummy, to get where he wants to go. He eats almost two full jars of baby food at each feeding, and takes an average of 5 ounces of formula three of four times a day. And as you saw above...he smiles a lot!

Jeff is tired, but doing great! He's doing a phenomenal job of keeping things going smoothly at camp but also keeping his family a priority! I'm so proud of him!

I got to go to dinner with Chrismiss this week...tomatillo enchiladas continue to be a fave! And we tried a stuffed avocado...yummy! We had fun chatting, and I'm grateful to be introduced to one of her favorite desserts...the pazookie! I have been thankful for her friendship this summer!

Today is my last day as a "twenty-something." I don't know how I feel about that. It's been a pretty amazing 30 years! I am truly blessed!

No particular reason, but Columbus is feeling more and more like home. I've emotionally moved from being "ok" most the time, to liking it most the time, to now loving it sometimes! I look forward to unpacking those last few boxes, finishing up those last few projects, and getting into a normal-life routine this fall. The Lord has been faithful to hold me close during the challenges we've had over the past several months and to even teach me much through it all. I'm excited to see the blessings...and "learning moments"...he will continue to reveal in the days to come. I don't know why I ever doubted. I guess He knows what He's doing after all. =)

[Quick side note: In the margin on the left, you will find a place where you can subscribe to our blog so that you'll get an email every time there's a new post. I thought it might make things easier on you "regulars." Also, this may sound silly, but if you do stop by our blog, I'd love it if you'd leave a comment every now and then...I like positive feedback and knowing that people do actually read this. Thanks! =)]

popsicles and pools...what summer is all about!

I've let so much time go by since my last post that there is soooooo much updating to do. Where to begin? Well, it has continued to be CRAZY hot here in Columbus. We keep cool by playing in the baby pool and sprinklers in the back yard. Also, I'm loving the cheap little popsicle molds you can buy and use to make your own homemade popsicles. We make apple juice and orange juice popsicles to have on hand at all times. They are a little messy, but the kids LOVE them, and don't even know that these popsicles are relatively good for them!



This is Deo, our second half nanny. Her birthday was yesterday, so "Happy Birthday, Deo!"


We were lucky to have visitors this past week! Matt and Caitlin Clyde spent a few days with us. They were our first guests since we purchased our new "guest bed" (a queen size air mattress), and we discovered that we actually have a decent make-shift guest room...the air mattress fits perfectly in the play room, the window unit A/C keeps it cool and quiet, and there's a door and blinds for privacy. Who needs a fourth bedroom, anyway? Matt and Caitlin, happy first anniversary (a few days early)! Thanks for gracing us with your presence. We always enjoy your company. Come back soon!


We also got a visit from one of our last-summer nannies, Skwirlie (aka Alissa). I'm wondering what was going on in Landry's mind while Skwirlie was here because of this conversation:
Mommy: "Landry, who's this?" (pointing to Alissa)
Landry: "Oh! A skwill!" (Skwill = squirrel in Landry language)
So funny! Even funnier...Hank saw that we laughed at Landry when she said that, so for the rest of the evening he continued to repeat, "Oh! A skwill!" and laughing histarically, so hard in fact that he almost fell over at one point. Alissa, it was so fun to see you and catch up! We'd love to see you again soon! We're praying for you...keep us posted on where the Lord leads you!


Tucker has a couple new talents. First of all, he's sitting up like a champ! He's getting so big...I can hardly stand it! Secondly, he knows to smile for the camera (as seen below)...what a cheese ball! He'll be crawling any day now...I'll try to post a little video as soon as he does! Also, he's building up quite the repetoire of foods he's eating now. I'm not noticing any obvious favorites yet. I think he just enjoys the groceries. And this hot of the press...he may be an all bottle-fed baby pretty soon. He seems a lot more satisfied after a big bottle of formula than he does after nursing these days. We'll see???




So, Hank started swim lessons this week! The James' nanny, Fairy, has taught swim lessons with her mom since she was 12, so she and Deo taught Grace and Hank this week. I wouldn't go so far as to say Hank is swimming...yet. He is fearless in the water, and his eagerness is probably his biggest enemy at this point. He's just too excited to actually concentrate on learning. He's working on "locking his head up" (putting his arms above his head), putting his face in the water, and kicking his legs...all at the same time. He loves jumping into the water for Deo to catch him, and he's able to swim a couple of feet. It's been a fun week, and we're excited to see how he continues to progress.


Mr. Hank is getting so big. Besides learning to swim, he's also developing quite the little vocabulary. I decided to start keeping a list of the words he uses that surprise me, especially because he uses them in the right context. You'll find the list in the margin on the left. One quick funny story. One day this week when he was getting ready for swim lessons, Deo and Skwirlie were putting sunscreen on him. He saw a picture on the bottle of a little dog tugging at the swim suit of a little girl. Hank put up his hand and said, "Wait. Is that for dogs?" Deo and Skwirlie, laughing, quickly assured him that it was indeed for people, not dogs, and he seemed satisfied with that answer. Oh, to know what he was thinking!

So, I'm saving the best part of the post for last. I want to share a conversation I had with Hank the other night as I was tucking him into bed...one that I won't soon forget:

Mommy: Hank, do you want to thank God for anything?
Hank: No, Mommy, I want you to.
M: What do you want me to thank him for?
H: Going camping with Daddy, playing in the playroom, my cars-cars...
M: Any people?
H: Walker and Miller and their mommy. My mommy, my daddy, my stista, and my baby bwudda Tucka.
M: OK. (then I proceeded to thank God for the things Hank had listed and to pray for Hank, but I prayed in a much more conversational way than normal) Amen.
H: I want to tell God some stuff.
M: OK, go ahead.
H: God, thanks for my new toy (referring to his McDonalds happy meal toy he had gotten that night). I hope it doesn't break and stuff like that. Thanks for my mommy, my daddy, my stista, and my baby bwudda Tucka. Amen.
M: Hank, that was great!
H: Mommy, I want to go in the sky and be with God.
M: Well, Hank, did you know that God is everywhere...even right here with us.
H: No, Mommy, God doesn't fit in the Mesquite house.
M: Well, I know it's hard to understand, but even though God is bigger than our house, he's still here with us, but we can't see or hear him...that's called faith. Did you know God is in my heart?
H: I want him to get out of there! (very serious face)
M: No, I want him there. I asked him to come in. Want to know why?
H: Yeah.
M: Do you do bad things sometimes, things that you get a whopper for?
H: Yeah, I hit Landry like this (hitting one had with his other) and that makes her feel bad.
M: Well, that's called sin, and God doesn't like sin. But God sent his son Jesus to the earth. Jesus was perfect, he didn't do anything wrong... he didn't hit his sister, or bite his brother, or disobey his mommy and daddy. So God put all our sins on Jesus, and he died on the cross. But then he came back to life. And if we want him to, he can wash all our sins away and come live in our hearts.
H: I want him to walk out of your heart into mine.
M: Oh, buddy! He can be in my heart and your heart at the same time. He's in Daddy's heart, too!
H: I want God and Jesus in my heart.
M: Why?
H: Because I love them!

So, the conversation continued on a little while after than...mostly rehashing some of the things we had already talked about. And even though he expressed interest in having Jesus "in his heart." I didn't feel like it was time to lead him in a prayer. I could see the wheels turning, and I know he's starting to "get it". Later I was telling Jeff that the comforting thing is that if he gets it, he gets it...it doesn't take a magical prayer to make it official. And if he doesn't really get it yet, at least he's curious! Oh, I can't tell you how that conversation blessed me. Of course, as a parent, probably my biggest goal in life is that my children know and love the Lord. What a blessing it was to begin to see some of the fruit from the seeds that Jeff and I (and probably many of you reading this) have planted over the past three and a half years!

Playing Catch-up

Well, Tucker was officially 7 months old yesterday! Wow, how time flies! He had his six month check-up on Tuesday (better late than never!). He weighs 17 pounds and is 26 inches long! He continues to amaze me with his sweet demeanor and cooperative disposition. As of 3 days ago, he eats breakfast, lunch and dinner with the rest of the family, and then nurses before bed...and he's still sleeping great through the night! So far he hasn't turned down any of the foods I've introduced to him...rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, applesauce, and bananas! I think his little face looks a little rounder every day! He still gets up on all fours like he's about to take off crawling, but no forward movement to speak of yet. My favorite thing right now is watching him watch Hank and Landry...oh, how he adores them!



Landry continues to keep us all laughing. Sleeping in the big-girl bed is still a little "if"y. She starts out in it every nap and night, but ends up in her pack-n-play (her consequence for getting out of bed) more often than not. I think she's just too social to stay in bed when there's people to see out in the living room. I keep telling myself that she'll "get it" eventually. Getting dressed every morning is an adventure, too. She has quite the opinion about what is "pretty." Notice the blue tie-dye shirt with floral print shorts. I think she likes colorful clothes, whether they match or not. She's looked a little bit like a clown the past few days...a very cute clown!



So, we've decided that Hank is Daddy's little sous-chef (the technical term for assistant chef). One morning Jeff was making breakfast for Fuzzy Wuzzy, the program director at Outback this summer, and Hank wanted to help. So grown-up! No worries, he's only holding a butter knife! We've noticed Hank's vocabulary expanding, too. Just today, he used the words "colorful" and "generous," and in the right context, too! He is slowly but surely gathering quite the collection of "cars-cars" (the little matchbox cars that are the characters from the Disney Pixar movie Cars). Today he got Guido and Luigi, and he's told me several times, "I'm so glad I got Guido and Luigi!" We've started making sticker charts for him so when he does something kind or goes all days without having an accident, etc., he gets a sticker, then when he fills up the chart he gets to go get a new "cars-car."

Yep, the Lay family is doing just fine these days. We have our fair share of trying moments (Tucker was awake from midnight to 4am the other night after he got his shots), but it's so worth it! Things at Outback are going well. It's hard to believe that the summer is over half-way over! It's been amazingly hot, but our air conditioner works great and apple juice popsicles help keep us cool! We are looking forward to some visitors in the next week. Chrismiss' sister will be in town this weekend, so we're excited to say hello to her. Mr. Matt and Mrs. Caitlin (as our kids loving refer to the Clydes) are coming for the weekend, and our nanny from last summer Skwirlie is going to spend a few days with us, too! We bought a queen size air mattress today to be our designated guest bed, so we are ready for some guests to use it...not just this weekend but in the future, too! (hint, hint)

Happy 4th of July!

Well, our Independence Day was spent saying good-bye to the first half staffers who were leaving and greeting the second half staffers who were showing up. In Pine Cove terms, this weekend is called MAWOG (stands for Men and Women of God...if you want to know more about the origin of MAWOG check out this really cool book called Forty! Let's Count 'Em!) It's always a bittersweet time closing out one half but being excited for the half yet to come.

One of the things that made it especially bittersweet for the Lay family was a little switch-a-roo of our nanny. Outback has been operating one female senior counselor short all first half of the summer. Chrismiss is incredibly qualified to fill that role, so in the best interest of camp, she has moved from being our nanny to being a senior counselor. She will do a great job, but she will be missed! Instead of Chrismiss, we now have Deo (short for Deo for my C-Oh...long story, maybe I'll blog about that another time) as our nanny for the second half of the summer. The kids love her and she is oh so sweet! I know we will be blessed to have her in our home.

Part of the MAWOG celebration included a little pool party, our first time in the pool (other than our tiny little yellow baby pool in our back yard) this summer! All 3 kids LOVED it! Tucker splashed like crazy. Landry giggled. And Hank was fearless! He liked to jump off the side to Jeff, but didn't want Jeff to catch him. And he went down the giant slide with his Daddy, too. So fun! We're looking into swim lessons for Hank before the summer ends...he is ready!


There were plenty of willing hands to hold the kiddos in the pool. Here, Guac (short for Unholy Guacamole) is holding Tucker, and Chrismiss is holding Landry

If you know me at all, you know it doensn't take much of a reason to justify going to Sonic. I figured Independence Day wasn't Independence Day without a little (or maybe a Route 44) Vanilla DP. Watch to see what Hank's and Landry's drinks of choice were.



Jeff did get done last night in time to come home for our own little July 4th family celebration. We were going to try to go see the city fireworks demonstration, but it was cancelled because all the firemen were putting out a fire out in the country just outside the city limits (which is still blazing today?!?! Supposedly there are helicopters with buckets of water flying around!). So we went to a fireworks stand and got some sparklers. Always fun!

This is the firework stand where we got our sparklers. (No worries, Jeff was right there with Hank.) Hank kept peeking around the corner and sticking his head in the doorway and saying peek-a-boo at the workers. Such a silly goose...like his Daddy!

I guess I'll end by stating the obvious:
Praise the Lord for allowing us to live in a country where we are free to worship Him! May that freedom continue!!!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Well, it wasn't actually "life" that gave us lemons today...it was our wonderful nanny Chrismiss (or as Hank calls her "Chrismiss, my manny"). Lemonade is one of her faves, so last weekend she bought lemons and sugar and brought them over for us to make homemade lemonade. We decided that even though it wasn't the most efficient way to do things, it would be fun and entertaining to include Hank and Landry in the making of the lemonade. So a few laughs, messes, and puckers later, we had some very delicious lemonade! Hank and Landry liked it, too!






For those of you who are curious, here's the very simple recipe:
juice from 4 lemons (I recomend using a lemon squeezer to get ALL the juice out easily)
1 cup sugar
water to make a quart
I would plan on AT LEAST doubling the recipe, because it's so yummy you'll want a lot of it to drink!!!

Cowboys and Cowgrills

We love dressing the kids up for the theme nights at camp. Tonight's theme was Back at the Barnyard. I was already at camp leading a Bible study for some of the girl staff, so our amazing nanny Chrismiss got the kids dressed and loaded up and brought them to camp for dinner. When I opened the mini-van and saw the kids in their boots (thanks Grammy and Pops for Landry's fun red garage sale boots!), I told them how great they looked. Hank said, "Yeah, Mommy! I'm a cowboy and Landry's a cow-grill!"

I'm pretty sure I got some fun points as a mom today, because I let Hank and Landry play in the hand-washing station after dinner. They got pretty soaked, especially Landry, but they had fun and stayed cool.


Landry had her two-year-old check-up today (better late than never, right?). We weren't suprised but were certainly pleased to find out that she's a healthy little girl!

She was so cute at the doctors office. First of all, I think she was thoroughly enjoying a little one-on-one time with mommy...I left the boys with Chrismiss. And although she was a little nervous, she cooperated very well with the nurse and doctor (more than we can say for her older brother!). Praise the Lord for healthy children! And praise the Lord for the sweet moments we get to have with them!

I'm chalking it up to lack of sleep, but I almost teared up tonight in the dining hall when they played a certain country song...you know the one called The Front Porch Looking In by Lonestar. I'll end with a portion of the lyrics and you can see for yourself why it got to me!

I've traveled here and everywhere
Following my job
I've seen the paintings from the air
Brushed by the hand of God
The mountains and the canyons reach from sea to shining sea
But I can't wait to get back home
To the one he made for me
It's anywhere I'll ever go and everywhere I've been
Nothing takes my breath away
Like my front porch looking in

There's a carrot top who can barely walk
With a sippy cup of milk
A little blue eyed blonde with shoes on wrong
'Cause she likes to dress herself
And the most beautiful girl holding both of them
Yeah the view I love the most
Is my front porch looking in

I see what beautiful is about
When I'm looking in
Not when I'm looking out

it's time

Ok, so I've been holding out on the whole idea of blogging for awhile. While we lived in Tyler, blogging really wasn't necessary. Most of our friends and family were a part of our every day life and didn't need updates on the happenings of the Lay fam. Well, things have changed, so I'm going to try to frequently post pictures and little stories that our loved ones might find interesting, or at least entertaining. Check back soon for my first "real" post!