Summer is here!

At the Moss house, summer has arrived! We invited our good friends, and all of their kids (plus two of their kids' friends) over to break in our new waterslide. It was SO much fun!!

Thankfully TJ was here to help Clayton put it up so I didn't have to. After watching the two of them do it the first time, it's been easy for me to up it up by myself since.

It was so fun to see how the kids feed off of each other's excitement. Each time someone else would squeel and giggle sliding down and splashing into the pool below, all of the other kids would squeel and giggle, trying to patiently wait for their turn. We had not one fight or squabble amongst the kids.. which is nothing short of amazing when pulling out a new cool toy. Everyone just stood and waited, happy to watch the others have fun until it was their turn.

Carter hated the waterslide this day. Thankfully, on a later day, we invited Tyler and Leslie over to play on it and he warmed up to it quickly. I asked him to show Tyler how to climb up and slide down and he was more than happy to show his "big boyness" to his younger friend. The next day Brandy brought the "little girls" over and he was excited, again, to show off how fearless he is.

I think this might be the best investment we've ever made - fun wise. If you want to come over for a grillin' water slidin' party.. let us know! We'll make arrangements! With school about to be out for summer, we'll have it out most of the time anyway!

Who's curls are these?

Samuel is our first child to have his daddy's curls. Clayton has curly/wavy hair.. not that you can tell with his oh-so-fashionable state police, must be one inch or shorter, hair cut. Samuel's hair gets curlier the more it grows... and we all love it!! His new nick-name is "curly head" and he actually responds to it now. His hair on top is even growing out into waves! After two totally straight haired kids, this is quite a treat!

I haven't updated on the little man of the house in a while. He is so much fun right now! He is a full blown walker, toddling EVERYWHERE, and only stopping to crawl when he's in a really big hurry and he can't make his feet move as quickly as he needs to. He is a big talker; he says: mama, dada, bye-bye, bite (for his big food), uh-uh (with a head shake to mean "I can't have that"), uh-hu (with wide eyes and a reach for "I want that."), and he's starting to try to repeat most of what we say... well, the little words anyway. He's so much like Madison was at this age.

He's learned to throw fits, which is nothing short of hilarious. If only he knew that his fits just simply cannot match what his big brother can do.. he wouldn't waste his energy! The funny things is, he ONLY throws a fit about food. He is still obsessed with food. He loves to eat! When the food it gone, or you stand up to take the empty bowl to the sink that you were just feeding him out of, he immediately throws himself backwards (and hurts himself) and starts screaming, or he puts his head down between his feet (while sitting up) and hits the ground in anger.

Oh yes.. mealtime is always an adventure around here!

He is still the happiest baby I have ever seen. He's super easy to travel with and is generally content doing "whatever." He sleeps through the night most of the time (minus last week when he got another tooth in.. poor thing.) and is still nursing several times a day. His big number one birthday is next month... how has it been an entire year since he was born? He loves the cats, he loves all of our friends, and they all love him. I cannot explain what a blessing it is to walk into church now and have several people, immediately, ask to hold the baby, or offer to fix an older child's plate, or any other task that is so much appreciated! I feel like we have gained another set of parents with Lee Ann and Taylor. You guys, if you read this, are just AWESOME. :) Taylor is Carter's best friend (if you ask Carter), Samuel is as excited over LA being around as he is when I'm around, and Madison loves how they both are fun and play and talk with her. Seeing where we are now, as compared to two years ago, with friends, is just mind blowing. Even better, seeing how much I've learned about reaching out to people is mind blowing as well. Jeff preached yesterday about how God uses EVERYONE.. not just the perfect "christians".. to do his work. Boy is he right. In the past week, a certain person I've been really called to just hang out with, has told me how different their life is since we got to know each other. I'll stop there... but it's a huge deal, and nothing I EVER could have accomplished myself. God is good, and he does give strength where and when we need it, if we just follow him. I'll be honest, this relationship started off and I did not see a big future for it. I never would have imagined where God would have taken us. I for sure never would have imagined praying with this person and sharing God's word with them. I've never thought I was good at "that stuff".... but God gave me words I did not have, and the ability to say them without being offensive. (huge for me) I'd have to start an entire new post, and I may soon, to say all that has changed in my life in the past few months. It's simply amazing... I have no other word to describe it. For the first time EVER I have peace. REAL peace. Brandy F. used to always talk to me about 'joy' and how true joy in God is not dependant upon your circumstances. "what?" lol That's what I thought about that. I had no idea what she was talking about.. until now. I've had some really rough times in the past few months.. but I'm still full of joy. It's an amazing feeling to really feel called to something greater. Greater than your life. Greater than your friends. Even greater than your family. I know this will not always be the case.. I know that "quiet rest" will come. I'm just soaking up this phase God has me in right now.. because it's just so wonderful. I don't want it to end, but I know it must. It must because if it never ended, I'd never move to the next phase.. whatever that is!

Wow.. I didn't mean to turn this Samuel post into all of this! I guess it was meant to be shared.

New Kids are Back!

If you saw the Today Show this morning, you probably watched with a mix of elation and horror as the now 40ish year old NKOTB took the stage and performed all of their old hits. They sound quite different now that they've hit pueberty... but it was still a nice trip back into time to see them doing the same cheesy dances and singing the songs from my youth.

Where is my 'Hangin' Tough' sleeping bag, anyways....

I have to admit, when I saw Donnie Wahlberg on stage... I wasn't sure how to react. I never liked him when I was young... he couldn't hold a candle to my curly headed, blue-eyed Joey... but now DW is one of my favorite actors... and here he is, kinda making a fool of himself! Ack! How can this be the same guy from Band of Brothers and Saw? Where's the tough military guy? The tortured detective? Oh... there he is... doing the shuffle dance on stage. Ai-Yi-Yi....

So, all of you New Kids fans... THEY'RE BACK! They're on TV right now.. I'm curious to hear what they're new music will sound like and what they'll sing about. Will the NKOTB write songs about childbirth and marriage? Will fans respond to this? I know I'm not the only Kew Kids fan... who's STILL a fan out there? And, is anyone else a little icked out by the comeback?

These are the important things in life... ;)

What's cookin'?

So, can you guess what my husband and his little helper are doing to my oven? I'll give you a hint: it involves taking the entire back panel off of the oven, the top off of the electronic panel, and eventually the bottom drawer off as well.










So... what do you think? Look in the far left corner of the bottom of the oven...











Here's another hint... sure to explain it:








Ah ha... who guessed correctly? Did anyone guess a King Snake was in the oven? Come on.. surely SOMEONE had that thought!


Clayton was outside mowing a few weeks ago, on a beautiful spring day. We had the back and front doors open to let the nice breeze in. Apparently, this let in more than the cool air. I walked into the kitchen to grab a pacifier for my sleepy baby and saw a tail slither up into the electronic compartment of the stovetop! I screamed... realized no one over the age of 4 was in the house to help me... and ran outside to demand my husband come retrieve "the thing" out of the stove. I explained that either a huge lizard or a snake was up there. He looked at me like I had three heads. Did he think I had made up this ellaborate story just to make him stop mowing? He came in, looked into all of the openings he could find to see if he could see "the thing" and decided it would just have to come out on its own b/c he couldn't see anything. Oh my gosh.... he left me alone in the house with "the thing" and went back to mowing. Everytime I had to walk past the kitchen I got goose-bumps all over and wanted to puke. Finally, I saw "the thing's" head barely sticking out of the same opening it had crawled into. I avoid screaming, afraid I'd scare it back into hiding, and ran to get Clayton again. He runs in and sees its head and asks, "Do you really want to know what that is?" "umm... no..." "It's a snake!" "Umm.. I said I didn't wanna know!"



This began a 40 minute battle between Homo sapien and Ophidia. It ended with my oven being taken apart and a snake being put into our trash can for Clayton to take and release into the wild... far away from the house!



How creepy is THAT?!



Anytime a door is open in our house now I'm running like crazy and yelling at whoever left it open, "Remember the SNAKE?!!"



Oh, country living at its finest!

Lovely

Thursday of last week we had softball practice. Madison's doing great and Samuel's contently sitting on my lap. Carter's playing nicely with the other kids a bit aways from me, but well within sight. Suddenly, one of the moms comes to me and says, "I'm guessing you didn't realize that's poison ivy he's picking over there...." Umm.. yeah.. I definitely didn't realize that. I rush him to the church bathroom (that's thankfully letting us practice on their lot) and scrub him down. I pray that keeps him safe from the terrible itch that is poison ivy's signature. My prayer worked! A week later, he has not ONE bump or rash from the ivy... me, however.. not so lucky. I literally have it from my neck - down. I've never had poison ivy this badly in my life! I can't even sleep from the constant itching... this must be how I felt when I had chicken pox in kindergarten. I took Carter for his 4yr checkup today (he's still a big boy.. 90% for weight and height... he got three shots and was SO brave.. he got a clean bill of health!) and when the doctor walked in she took one look at me and she nearly laughed but yet was obviously concerned. Yeah, it's okay.. I know it's bad. She informed me that with a case as bad as I have I would likely keep it for several weeks, perhaps months, from reinfecting myself. Great! She wrote me a rx for some steriod pills that should have me all cleared up. Problem is I have to take them for two weeks... meaning that for the next two weeks, according to the doc, I can expect sleepless nights b/c I"ll be wired, a cranky baby that also won't sleep b/c I'm still nursing.. but the good side is I'll have ample energy to deal with the cranky baby that won't sleep. Maybe the house work I've been putting off thanks to PMS will get done while I'm unable to sleep. 2am could possibly be a delightful time to mop! If I was able i'd post a picture to show off my lovely rash... you'd all be impressed with what I was able to pull off just by washing the poison ivy off of my little boy.. you would think I was the one picking it like flowers. But, at least Carter escaped it! There's the silver lining! :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my new four year old!

Daddy look-alike, sister looker-up-to, baby brother loving, and mommy's cuddle bug. The adjectives that describe you are many and quite varied. From rotten to amazingly sweet and thoughtful, from a bit crazy to beautifully well behaved and focused, from adorable... to, well... adorable! You constantly amaze me. As active as you are, you also tend to be so laid back. You seem to be your father made over. Nothing bothers you for very long and you can't stand to see someone else bothered. Your love of all things boy make my day. Playing in the mud with dump trucks, stacking blocks to make the highest tower ever just to jump into it so you can enjoy the chaos of a big crash, pestering your sister until she nearly cries, just to hug her and say, sincerely, "I'm sorry Madison." You still are in need of much affection, and because you love to receive it, you have so much stored up to give away. You are a constant source of hugs, kisses, arm rubs, hair strokes, and "can I sit with you?". You keep everyone in the house laughing. Your middle-child-ness is definitely starting to show. You are patient with your baby brother... allowing him to pull your hair for sport and steal your toys right from your hands with nothing more than a laugh. You are sensitive, yet don't wear your heart on your sleeve. You, quite possibly, are destined to be the most well balanced person this world has ever seen. I know you are going to accomplish great things in your life. I know you will be successful in all that you do. From preschool this fall to who knows what in the future. I love you Carter-man! Happy 4th birthday!