a time to keep: Excuses, Excuses

Mac will come up with any excuse to stay awake and not sleep at night. Our rule is that he stay in bed, but can call us if he needs us. But "need" can be a relative term. Some things we've heard from his room after bedtime:
"My fingernails are long!"
"My ears are dirty!" (funny that two of his excuses regard personal hygiene?)

And the other night,
"Why do guys have whiskers? Why do guys have whiskers? WHY do GUYS have WHI-I-I-I-SK-ERS!??"

What a boy.

Preschool (maybe) looms on the horizon, and Mac has been giving it lots of thought. Yesterday, out of the blue, he said, "Mom, when I go to school, I want to go far, far, far away on the intersteak." (His word for interstate.)

"Well Mac, that makes me sad because I love you so much and I would be really sad if you were far away from me."

Mac got really serious. There was a long pause as he thought it all over. Then, in a small, sweet voice with a twinge of uncertainty (reflecting his actual feelings about school, I think), he replied, "Well mom. You can come with me if you want to."

I told Brad later that I think I'm going to be the mom that cries on the first day of school...not just a few tears. Sobs probably. I'm already crazy emotional about it and it's months away! Can he possibly be old enough for this?!?

In other news, Brad and I are smitten with our new camera card that wirelessly uploads all our pictures to our computer AND our flickr account whenever the camera is within range of our wireless network. YES. There really is a such thing. And IT. ACTUALLY. WORKS. Can you believe it? So no more excuses for pic-less posts. Lately:

The girl has had a crazy appetite lately and then suddenly has this sweet little pudge (and none of her clothes fit!).

Can you believe we had this kind of ice for nearly a week?

Brad is the photographer of the family. He got some lovely shots of our church in the snow. Where we were married, where our children were baptized, where we worship with our church family every week:

When I tell people where we go to church, they often reply, "Oh, is that the pink church?"

Brad has a knack for capturing scale in photos. I love the contrast of Arden with our tree.

One thing I love about where we live--crazy snow and ice one week, 60s the next. I love that we can play outside (often without coats!) year round. This truck stays in our backyard...through rain, snow and sleet...and still plays music. Mac calls it the "Army Farmy" truck. (It plays the song, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". Old MacDonald=Army Farmy.)