1,000 Words

The Girls

I JUST LOVE THESE LITTLE FACES!

Baseball

This weekend, we went to Texarkana to watch Tyler play baseball. He made All Star's this year and they were playing in the National Tournament. We watched them play three games Saturday. The first two games were just pool games and didn't count. They lost one and won the other. But, after that, all the games counted. They won their final game Saturday and won all their games Sunday. Tyler did amazing! He played very well and we were so proud of him! We also got to hang out with Candi, Blake and Taylor. We really enjoyed seeing you guys! Despite the heat, the girls were pretty well behaved. Hannah kept lifting her shirt up to "cool off". Everyone at the ball park got a nice peak of that big 'ol belly of hers!

Umbrellas and Babies

Yesterday afternoon, NWA saw a monsoon. I am serious...it was POURING down rain here. I have one very special child (ahm...Emma) who is TERRIFIED of the rain. She is not scared of the thunder or the lightening, but the actual water falling from the sky...that's scary. She says "I don't like it getting my hair wet." Yes, that's the reason...but we won't go into how prissy she is during this post. And...when I say scared, she cries and gets VERY upset when we have to get out in the rain.

So, yesterday, I broke out an umbrella for her. Now, this is not just any umbrella. It is the single most special umbrella in the world. It was Bea Bea's umbrella. (for those of you who don't know, that's my grandmother who passed away when I was in college and Emma is named for her) So, told Emma all about Bea Bea and her special umbrella and BAM...no more rain fears! In fact, she took that umbrella and walked right outside to "play" in the rain with it. When it was time to come in, she asked if she could go back outside IN THE RAIN with her special umbrella. I knew that during that moment, Bea Bea was smiling down and wondering "Boni, what took you so long to figure that one out!?"

Now...on to babies...

Hannah has decided that she wants to carry a baby around (sometimes babIES). She fell in love with one baby in particular that used to be Emma's...(and trust me, there were LOTS to choose from). During this process, I found out a very endearing quality about my youngest daughter: SHE DOES NOT JUDGE A BOOK BY THE COVER. The baby Hannah picked is naked...and dirty...and ratty...and has had her face/head colored...and is about to lose an arm...and almost as big as Hannah. But, Hannah loves her just the same.

She drags Baby around everywhere. She sleeps with Baby and if for a minute she loses baby, I hear (in the sweetest voice) "Ba-by? Ba-by? Baaaaaaabbbbyyyyy!" Hannah hugs Baby and kisses Baby. Hannah even (not so gently) puts Baby in the wagon for a ride and shares her passy with Baby. She loves Baby and I think Baby loves her because if it wasn't for Hannah she would still be in the "forgotten toy" bin in Emma's room. Baby was rescued from being sent where the forgotten toys go. In these pictures, she had found a second baby. I tried to get her to love that one like she does Baby (it's smaller and cleaner), but no such luck!

Does anyone else notice that all the babies/Barbies in our house are naked!? Why is that?

1,000 Words

Thought for the Day: Being a Mommy

I always think about how blessed I am to know the joys and sorrows of being a Mommy. It's the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. I received an email today (see below). It's so true. You never totally understand these feelings until you have children. IT'S AMAZING!

Being a Mom

We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of "starting a family." "We're taking a survey," she says half-joking. "Do you think I should have a baby?"

"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral. "I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes. I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, "What if that had been MY child?" That every plane crash and every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of "Mom!" will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moment's hesitation.

I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood.She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine.

That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.

That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor. My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.

I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. "You'll never regret it," I finally say. Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter's hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.

Look at me!

Last night, when it FINALLY cooled off enough to go outside (which was way past bedtime, but oh well), we all headed outside to let the girls play for a little bit. Emma rode her bike and Hannah rode on her tricycle. Now before you think she is a genius (I mean, she's pretty close, but not quite), she was on it saying "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" That's his indication to start pushing! Enjoy the pics!

Week in LA

Last week, I spent the whole week out in LA. The hotel I was at was 3 blocks from Rodeo Drive! Yes...it was amazing. I ate at Wolf Gang Puck's restaurant called Cut, saw Whitney Houston, Avril Lavigne, Adrian Peterson and Deana and Jesse (The Bachelorette). Now, before you get too jealous, let me tell you that I was working the WHOLE time. I had just enough time to fall in love with a $900 purse at Escada and some $1600 shoes at Jimmy Choo. We were in meetings all day. But, dinner was amazing and our hotel rooms were very nice. The best thing was I had time to spend with my friends Cassidie and Lauren. I am one of those fortunate people who gets to work with some of my really good friends.


I was so glad to come home! I miss my girls and Travis terribly!

Is that a joke?

Oh Emma...this morning she reminded me once again that she is DEFINITELY my child! As I was wiping Hannah's face, our conversation went like this:

Me: Emma, go through these wipes in the trash
Emma: Okay.

(as she gathers the wipes, I see her face is dirty)

Me: Let me wipe your face too.

Emma: (breathes...LOUDLY) Ooookay...

(I wipe her face)

Me: Take this wipe to the trash too.

Emma: It's more like trash FIVE!

So...yes, she has my sense of humor. If you don't get that joke/smart mouth comment, you must not know me either! :)

Family Pictures

So, I promised to post some pictures of our family from the beach. Chris Miller (Sue's brother-in-law) so graciously took some amazing pictures of our family while we were in Florida. I had stated in a previous post that I was going to post these and never got around to it. So, after much harassment from my loyal reader(s), here are a few of them. Chris did a GREAT job capturing the girls, Travis and I. Thank you, Chris!

Redneck Bath Time

Tonight, Emma went to visit her Pawpaw and Mimi in DeQueen. After they left, Hannah, Travis and I played outside. Hannah got EXTREMELY dirty. So, Travis decided to turn on the water hose, strip her down and let her "bathe" in it. Hannah had so much fun. She decided to fill up an ice chest with water. At one point, I thought she was going to dive into the ice chest face first. It was hilarious.

I'm a big kid now!

Last week, we had to do something that marked the end of Hannah's infancy and began a whole new stage...the TODDLER STAGE!

She has been trying to climb out of her crib for quite sometime now and has gotten a little too close for comfort. As parents, we did the only logical thing...no we didn't cage her in!....we took down the crib and moved her to a toddler bed (tear). She did okay the first night and only got up once and fell off once. But, since then, she has done great! When we tell her it's night night time, she follows us to her room and gets her blanky and passy and just climbs in bed. It's so sweet. Here is a picture of my sweet TODDLER in her new bed!

Fun on the Fourth

Every year for the 4th of July, we pack up the car and head to Lake Hamilton to spend it with my parents and my Dad's side of the family. It's always a really great time. We missed it last year, since Hannah was so little. But, this year, on Thursday afternoon, we headed out! Travis had to work, so it was just the girls and I. We missed him, but had fun anyway!

Thursday night, Jon and Nicole were there when we got there. We decided that we should load up on the boat and go for dinner at Fisherman's Wharf. This had to be Jon's idea...because it was a bad one! We docked the boat and the place was packed. Jon headed up to see how long the wait was. They basically told him that our party was too large (all 7 of us!) and they didn't have room for us tonight. So, we put the girls back in their life jackets and headed to Sam's Pizza. It's a really great little pizza place on the lake...but when I say little...I mean L-IIIII-TLE! A guy that worked there help us tie up the boat. Once he got us docked, he said "The wait is probably long, there are TWO bachelor parties in there". ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Why didn't you tell us this before you wasted your time tying up this huge party barge...COME ON FELLA! USE YOUR HEAD! By this time it was like 8 o'clock and my girls were STARVING and sleepy. So, we headed back to the house and sent my dad to put in our name a KJ's. He no more than made it up there and called us and told us to come eat! At 9 o'clock, we finally sat down for dinner. Then, we went home. My Uncle Bruce and Aunt Patti got there not too long after we did. We said our hello's and headed to bed.

The next morning, the boys (Dad, Jon and Uncle Bruce) went to HSCC to play a round of golf. We just hung around the house and waited to GrandDa, Daddy Ben, Aunt Bev, Cousin Travis and Bev's boyfriend, Michael to come over to start our afternoon on the Lake. Everyone got there and we ate lunch and headed down to the dock. By the way, my dad bought Emma and Hannah (when Hannah's older) and HUGE tube to ride behind the boat called "Big Bertha" and boy is Bertha big! We had so much fun riding it! Emma and I were the first ones on it and after coaxing her to ride, SHE LOVED IT! Everyone took their turn on Bertha, EVEN GRANDDA! Dad had a good time trying to throw everyone off all afternoon. I think he successfully launched Uncle Bruce and Cousin Travis. It was hilarious!

That night, we ate lots of yummy crappie, hush puppies, fries, potato salad, coleslaw and home-made ice cream. Then, we watched the fireworks on the Lake. Saturday was more lake and then, we headed home. It was a great weekend and is always wild and crazy during a "Burton Family Gathering"!

Sunday, we came home and went to Lynlee Fries 2nd birthday party. We had a great time...but I forgot to take any pictures!