I love Alexis' prayers lately. Tonight she said, "God, please keep those big 'maters (tornados) away, and please help the big tomaters not come to our house and knock it down, and keep us safe from the 'maters, and please be with those people whose houses gets knocked down by the 'maters, bless them and  help them to find another house before it snows, and thank you for mommy and daddy, Amen!

The other night, it was, "Dear God, please help Blake to not be a big whiny baby who goes Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, wah, wah, wah....I had to step in or its hard telling how long she would have gone..I am finding it hard not to laugh during her prayers lately, she is just  so adorable with her eyes squeezed shut as tight as she can, and her sweetness and frankness to God. I love the innoccence of children.

A few night ago, on the way home from town, Alexis was asking about Great Grandaddy and heaven, wondering about angels and how we get to heaven.  "Are butterflys wings strong enough to take us up to heaven?" was one of her many questions. Bless her sweet little heart, she wanted to say a prayer for the people in hell, and that others would share their water with them, and on and on she poured out her heart to God.  Meanwhile, Blake is on the other side of the car, and I hear him quietly counting under his breath as she prayed. I wondered what he was counting, telephone poles, the number of minutes she prayed, stinkbugs on the windshield of the car..He stopped at 5, losing count  and started over again.  Lexi finished her prayer, and asked Blake if he had been listening. "Shh," he said, "hold on."  "7, 8, 9!!" he exclaimed. " I was counting my friends!"  =D  Anthony and I couldn't help but laugh, it was just so funny that on one side Lexi was saying this "dorable (as she pronounces it) sweet prayer, and Blake is on the other side covetously counting his friends =)  "No wait, 10!" He remembered his last friend, Alexis! How sweet is that! I love my kids! Their innocence, their sweetness, their rowdiness, their crazy pranks, their sweet giggly laughter. Thank you God for their lives!

Thanksgiving is almost here, and we have so much to be thankful for. I really wish Thanksgiving would come more than once a year, and I know that we should be thankful every day, but I know I  spend so much more time reflecting on it around the holiday than other times.

*a sweet baby who sleeps SO good at night, despite all the messups I made nursing her to sleep for so long

*a clean car!

*a wondeful christian school to send Blake to, that he loves! Also a Godly teacher.

*along those same lines, a great church full of love and kindness, and wonderful wonderful people. Love the pastor and his wife, true mentors, I see them as a second set of parents.

*a husband who puts up with me and loves me, regardless of my grumpyness and  unfair expectations at times. What a great provider, father, christian, and friend he is to me.

*a loving, merciful God. Where would we be without Him?

*food on the table, wood in the stove, clothes on our backs

*loving friends and family

We have so many blessings! Hope everyone has a wonderful thankful holiday! Im thankful for you! =)

"You singing, Pants?"

"Yea, are you singing Pajamas?"

"Yep!"

This is one of the many crazy conversations going on in the ole Tahoe lately. Alexis informed me the other day in her sweet little voice that she was going to call me "pants" from now on. "Well than I am going to call you "pajamas", I replied, and so there it is. Every once in a while, out of the blue, she comes up with something wacky to say to call me pants. I love it, just part of her goofy personality. Tonight we decided that we would call Alana "Diapers", which I think is very fitting, considering how many she is going thru lately.

It is sad for me to look back and see how much of this year has not been blogged. I tend to put immense pressure on myself over things that I feel like need to be done, and feel such a sense of failure when I don't get certain things accomplished. Not for others, but for myself, I let myself down by not writing these memories. Alana's first year is almost over, and I haven't shared and written how much joy she has brought us this past year. I hope that I can keep some of those memories from falling thru the holes in my mind. Its hard to look back and try to sum up the year without missing out on so many important things.

We are having a wonderful fall so far, the weather is still nice and warm, and if it weren't for these chilly mornings and the  dead wispy grass in my front yard I would be hard pressed to believe that it is even that fallish time of year. The evening darkness has been arriving earlier as well, which brings Daddy home earlier a lot of times, so for this we are grateful. I love summer, but am secretly looking forward to dark evenings of playing games with the kids before bed, and soups in the crockpot. Shh, don't tell summer! Ill deny it.

Blake started Kindergarten waay back in August, several weeks before public schools started. I was very nervous of his first day/week, sending by baby off to school already just didn't seem possible. He has done so wonderful, I am so proud of my big boy. Its hard for me to believe that this tall blond independant little breath of questions is the same tiny little human that followed me all over the place, dragging some piece of green machinery behind. Now he follows me into school, gives me a hug, (when he remembers, he's usually so excited to go see his friends) and sits down in the brown desk and listens and learns all day long. I love to hear the the shouts of "hey Blake"  or "I love you Blake" ( I heard some little girl shout this the other day when I picked him up) when I take him in, and see him form these little friendships. His best friend he says is a boy named Joshua S., altho the other day he told me it was Taylor, which is the cutest little girl with a sweet toothless grin. Uhoh, move over Carlee, you may have some competition for Blake's love. ( Carlee is the daughter of a friend, that he is bound and determined to marry when they get older). Thankfully he has a long time before he needs to worry about that, but I guess he is a little like his momma and feels better about things when he can get the details worked out. Should I tell him life doesn't always go just as we planned? I guess there will be plenty of time for that. 

He is really enjoying his school, and I am very pleased with the things I see them focusing on. They have a new verse to learn each week, and Blake is always singing a new song he learned about Jesus.   We feel so blessed to have him absorbing God's word every day. I love perusing his folder when he gets home to see what they have been working on that day. And being the sentimental person ( i much prefer that to packrat) that  I am, I store almost all of them away in a box. My plan is to go thru at the end of the year and save my favorites. So far my fav this year has been a picture he was supposed to draw of his family. He did a great job, drawing in such detail as a dress on Lexi, a little Alana with a heart around her (melt my heart) and of course his cat. And there he is standing proudly next to daddy, with his big shoes on. Mommy was no where in sight. "Blake," I said, " I love it! You did such a great job, but where is mommy?" "oh" he says, biting his lip and looking up at me with his big puppy dog eyes, "Im sorry Mommy, there wasn't enough room on the page for you."  I couldn't help but laugh, and I quickly reassured him that that was fine, and how much I loved it. "Next time, Mommy, next time." Love me some little boy!

This week Alexis went to the dentist for the first time. 2 cavities in that tiny little mouth of hers!! We are going to have to start singing "Jesus loves me" twice instead of once while brushing to make sure we are getting all those sugarbugs. And try to be more regular about it, which will be a lot easier to do once the bathroom is finished upstairs. God is teaching me patience! Blake has one cavity which we get fixed here soon as well. He is so anxious for his teeth to fall out, he usually tells me about once a day that he thinks he is getting a loose one, while vigourously wiggling away inside his mouth, hoping that one of them is moving.

Alexis is my little singer. She loves LOVES to sing and music and always wants it cranked up in the car. You can usually hear her singing her favorite song about being H-a-p-p-y because God loves her all the time, a song she learned at bible school this summer. She has become a lot more girly these past few months, before just willing to tag along behind Blake and do whatever he is doing. Now she is loving to dress up, wear her costume jewelry, play kitchen and dolly, and do her sticker/coloring books and dress up her magnetic dolls. She is such a little bubble of laughter, and joy.

Well I really need to wrap this up, because as alway  I didn't get started till way late, and now it is way past my bedtime. Just some quick notes about Alana, since I am not sure when I will get back on here, hopefully it won't be long, since there is so much more I want to write about.

Alana is a momma's baby for sure. She is very choosy about who she will go to, loves her daddy and lets out shrieks and goes a running when he comes home. She started walking a few weeks ago, but has really gotten confident this  past week, doing more walking than crawling. She has 6? little chompers which she will bite you with if your not careful. Were working on this, dont worry! =)j

Okay, these eyes wont stay open any longer. I hope to be back shortly with a little more about the girls and what our lives are like right now. We truly feel so blessed, it is evident how much God loves us, he is there at every turn filling us with so much more than we deserve.

She did it! Little girl rolled over! I just now got a post up about her birth and now she is rolling over..time is going to fast....slow down...my babys growing up to fast!
We are snowed in today. Yesterday 7 inches of snow dumped down on Charlottesville. We have had such a lazy weekend, playing puzzles, drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn, watching home videos,sledding,  reaarranging the living room, and trying to stay warm.  I cant believe these temperatures, I dont remember the last time it was this cold.
Here are a few new pictures. I will come back and do a real update soon, when I can get started earlier. Hope everyone is having a wonderful new year!

Were to start, were to start... An update has been a long time coming, xanga crosses my mind every once and a while, and while I hate missing out on reading every ones posts, I dont log on very often to catch up on whats going on. Its just one more stop on my internet journey, and with facebook and cafemom and the other sites that call out to me, I have had to cut back on something. I do want to do a better job of blogging tho, there are so many things I have thought "oh I want to write that down so I dont forget", and guess what, Ive forgotten them =/.
 Blake is now a preschooler!! He is loving school, and altho  I still get a "I dont want to go to school tomorrow" every now and then when I pick him up, he is ready to go back by the next morning. He says he likes it, and he has fun, so Im not sure why he pulls the "I dont want to go back" out every  now and then. I think he may be afraid hes missing something fun at home. He is coming home with new songs and bible verses, asking me what letter words start with, and I love going thru his backpack and seeing the projects hes worked on that day, and hearing him tell me about them.
If Ive talked with you in the past few months, I have probably shared my fear of him going off to school. I really did stress about it ( Im a worrier, what can  I say), fearful that he would hate it, that he would feel like I was deserting him, and that he would cry every day when I dropped him off, wondering if we were making the right decision for him. His first day was great, I couldnt have asked for a better morning. I did a lot of praying the nite before, huddled in the bottom bunk while Blake slept above, just for peace for him and peace for me as well, as I have been know to tear up at the thought of leaving him ( Its only for 3 hours, 3 days a week), I thought for certain I would be a mess that day.  When I went to wake him up that morning, the first thing he said was, "I dont want to go to school!". Uhoohh this isnt going to go good, was my thought, but after we jumped into his "Blakeyman" (His clothes all layed out on the floor to look like him) and had some breakfast, we headed to school with smiles on our faces, despite the rainy weather. Since it was the first morning, I wanted to take him in instead of just dropping him off at the door, so we went in, looked around at the toys some and then I told him that Lexi and I were heading out, wed be back in a bit. He was so worried about the crayons and the glue, he barely even looked up to tell me bye, I even had to tell him twice I was leaving before he heard me. A far cry from the leg hanging and tears I expected. Heading outside, I talked to a friend for a bit, and then Lexi and I headed out to start our morning. NO tears from me either, altho I did feel them well up just for a second when I was talking to my friend about it. I know that God truly gave us both peace and calm that morning, I cry about anything anymore, and for me not to cry about this has to truly be a Godsend. When we came back to pick him up, he was still all smiles, happy to tell me about Chester the Racoon, who they had read stories about that day. Just one cute thing, he has a little pocket in his bookbag, that I put a kiss in when I dropped him off that first morning. He is so careful with that pocket, only opening it a tiny bit when he wants me to put a new kiss in, getting mad at Lexi for letting his kiss out. Every once and a while he will ask me to put a new one in. I thought that was sweet, he really seemed to hold that little gesture dear.  He is now on his 3rd week of school, and seems to really enjoy it so far.

---

     Anthony is such a great dad, he has been such a blessing this summer, letting this hyperactive, full of energy boy tag along with him most days on the farm.  Blake loves to be just like Daddy, if Anthony is wearing long pants, so is Blake, If Anthony has boots on, so does Blake, and so on. Blake is a little shadow, all around, never far behind daddy, his little mirror image.  Its so funny to go down the lane, seeing Anthony and Blake bouncing around in the tractor, kneeling over a big slab of concrete with trowels in their hands,  Anthony putting things together, while Blake cheerily takes things apart with his little tools.  Altho that little tendency did get him in a bit of trouble when he made his bike into a little pile of pieces.  Altogether, I think this little boy would say he had a great summer, hanging with daddy.

---

     Lexi is such a joy, she is so full of giggles and songs,  bright eyes and chapstick. She loves hanging out with Mommy, but is sad to when she cant go to the barn with Daddy and Blake. Daddy is sure to give her extra hugs, and she is usually busy torturing the kitty or dragging around her toys soon after they leave. She really entertains herself so nicely, often sitting in a pile of mess of something, singing B-i-n-g-o or some other little diddy that is going thru her head. She loves music and stories, doesnt do a lot of playing with dollies and such, she would much rather give her stuffed animals (which she loves, and has way to many of, horses and cats mostly) a bottle than her dolls. She loves clothes, and has her favorites ( owl shirt, cat shirt, pink pants..) that she wants to wear about every time we go somewhere. So if you see her wearing the same outfit a lot, its not that she doesnt have other clothes, its just that mommy is humoring her sense of style =).  She also loves coloring, and markers, and gets quite into her work, bending low over the coloring book to stay in the lines.
    She is a pretty good shopper, the other day I realized that I had spent quite a lot of time shopping at the Lollipop shop sale in Charlottesville. She was so sweet, just walking along beside me, playing on the dirty floor and looking at things. Happy as a clam.  She found a new kitty shirt, which made her very happy, she carried it around the rest of the morning.
    Not saying the little girl is perfect, she has a whine that will make you consider pulling your ears off. Believe me!  Ive considered it! =)

---

     New baby girl is soon to arrive. 5 days to be exact! That is if she arrives on time.  Im thinking I may go over with her, I was 5 days over and induced with Lexi, and altho for a while I felt like I might just go early, the days keep coming and going, and NO baby. I am okay with that, altho I do have those end aches and pains, I know she will be here in the next 2 weeks at least =) Im just enjoying these last few days before everything changes, I know its just a matter of time until I am enjoying 2 rushed bites of supper and bleary sleepy eyes. I am looking forward to meeting this sweet bundle, and seeing who she looks like tho.
     Well I feel good about getting this update done, Its been a long time since I even logged into xanga, so it feels good to be back on track. I really should be mopping the kitchen floor, but I am glad to cross this off the list of "to dos".  Wishing everyone a wonderful Fall,  I will keep you posted on baby news =)

     I had so much fun watching the kids today. They were quite the little busybodies while I mowed the lawn. They do pretty good about entertaining themselves for the  hour and a half that it takes me to mow, usually playing with their kittens, in the sandbox, their bikes or on their little battery operated  tractor/car, the swimming pool, and sometimes all of the above.
     Today they opted to play car and tractor. We had gotten Blake a tractor at a yard sale last year, and for his birthday this year we bought him a new battery so that he could pick up a little speed, the other one just barely squeaked around the yard anymore. He has spent many many hours on this little green machine, ripping around the yard, standing up  in the seat scoping out the "fields" he needed to work in, taking corners on 2 wheels, hauling hay and rocks and cats and weeds for me =) in his little wagon, even Lexi a time or 2, all this while Lexi looked on a bit enviously from her Belmont Estate sale tiny fourwheeler of many years past, whose battery was probably older than she is, and inches along at a less than snails pace. Her only hope of picking up some speed was if a strong hurricane wind came thru.    A few weeks ago we had picked her up a little beetle Dora car at a yard sale to, missing a battery charger, but Anthony (being the smart guy he is) was able to rig up something with a charger we had for something else.   How much fun she could have now. It runs great in the gravel, but gets a bit bogged down in the grass. It could use a new battery to at some point, but as they are a bit pricey, she will just have to be happy moving at a medium speed.
     As I zoomed around the yard on my "fun ride",  the kids played on theirs.  Lexi is still learning how hers works exactly, she gets a little freaked out by the initial jolt when she first pushes the gas pedal.  She would often get stuck in ditches or up against a tree, or be to nervous to head up a steep hill. Blake was so cute, he would ride to the rescue, screeching up on his little green tractor, the wagon bumping along behind, hopping off almost before it stopped moving, (He learned that from his Grandma Mildy BTW) , giving her a push, or a pull, hefting the front of the car up like he was Superman. Then they would happily start off again, to pick up nuts under the hickory tree, and  to "jump the bump" at the end of the lane.  He even  screached by me with a handful of flowers, I thought maybe I was going to be rewarded for being the best mom ever, instead, he took them to his little sis.  I thought that was really precious, evidently he had a abundance of love for little Lex yesterday.  So so cute, it warmed my heart.
     This summer is just flying by, I cant believe that it is almost August!!  And less than 9 weeks until little Baby Rhodes arrives. I have spent a lot of time the last couple weeks in preparation for the new arrival. I know I still have time, but dont want to wait until the last minute either. So the toy room moved to the basement, the empty toy room is in the process of becoming the baby room, Blakes room is in the middle of renovations and Lexis is now finally at a point where I feel good about it. Anyone that has toured her room in the past year has seen a almost finished wall with some wires hanging out, needing  just a circle of paint around the 2 holes, curtains for 2 windows, and a blanket thrown over the other, a few more wires with a light bulb hanging out of the ceiling, just waiting for the beautiful white fan stored in the closet, and a borderless wall, stripes just ending...there.
     I found some curtains that I liked, finally got Anthony to put the wires back in the wall, AND Lexi now has a beautiful fan to watch go round and round as she drifts off to sleep. Soooo, I need a border yet, and sometime in the future I would like to get something a little different for her big girl bed, which she doesnt sleep in yet so no biggie. What we have on there is what came with the bedroom set. Feeling good about finally getting all that accomplished, but boy am I tired. =)  A bit more work in Blakes room, attempt to sew up a few curtains, and I will be finished with that as well. Yay!  I really wanted to get these things completed this summer, now Im ready to get some applesauce and corn in the freezer, some tomatoes on the pantry shelves, and maybe some more pears ????
     Since It wouldnt be one of my posts without at least a few pictures, Im going to see if I cant dig something up. Im sure I have a  few pictures on this computer somewhere =D

I just posted this Gerber I Pledge widget for 250 credits. You can earn free credits too!