catch up

if you read my last post then you know that summer ushered in a whole new level of cra-zy around the mooney house.  all the routines & schedules got rocked & i was in full survival mode.  but it only got better & better.  we all got used to some summer after about a week and a half (which felt more like an eternity and a half, but anyway) and i wasn't really at a computer or behind a camera due to the whole survival thing.  but i did, however, capture a few things on the ol' not-great-quality-but-it-will-do iPhone.  

THE LAUNCH

sooooo....matt had an idea.  he wanted to gather friends and family to launch the book in a unique way.  with different friends reading bits and pieces of the book and other friends playing music that meant something to us through-out, all following the story chronologically.  the night was beyond planning.  God just seemed to show up.  it was worshipful and funny and cool and our friends over at 17th design, made it look great.  it's hard to explain, unless you were there, but our friend seth is too nice & tried here. 

THE HAZEL "LAUNCH PARTY"

hazel thought since we went to a book launch party that she would have her own in her room one night.  having no basis of what a book launch is, she designed her own evening that included:

dinner and some books.

her signing books & explaining her inspiration for writing by saying "i did not want to do this, but i did it for the kids".  naturally.

and last, but not least, a hair salon "station".  

love that girl's creativity and deliberateness.

THE BANGS

so i cut lena some great little hipster bangs.  no matter how confident i sound in this, do not believe me.  i was not happy about hacking away at those golden locks.  however, a new thing lena began a while back was hitting her head and pulling her hair.  this happened for many different reasons, either she was mad or didn't want to do what was being requested of her or she just wanted attention.  she was pulling her hair out.  quite literally.  matt suggested the idea that if she couldn't grip it, she couldn't actually pull it out even if she tried.  so before cutting it very much, we tried some bangs.  and it worked!  we still don't have a great plan for the head hitting, but she can't pull her hair and that is a start!  not to mention, she's adorable in bangs.

and since it worked, we still have these beautiful locks every morning.  

i mean, really, who has bed-head this pretty?

THE TEETH

children loose their baby teeth around 6 or 7 years of age.  lena lost 2 of her bottom teeth a few months ago and the top 2 were loose for the longest time.  and since she didn't mess with them like most kids that will mess and wiggle loose teeth, the 2 permanant teeth were literally in before the baby teeth fell out.  and can i just say, loose teeth rocked ms lena's world.  sensory wise...she just hated it.  (enter, the saddest pictures ever)

this is what she looked like when they got really loose but we're out yet.  

and then...

and this is what she looked like after one fell out and then the other.  mmmuuuucchhhhh happier!! snaggletooth cuteness.

THE WEDDING

one of my first friends when we moved to fayetteville was becky. we love becky...all of us.  and for the 8 years i've known her, i've always considered her a quite rational person and then she fell in love, got engaged and asked ALL 3 of my children to be in her wedding.  and i got to be a bridesmaid!  i guess love does crazy things to a person.  her wedding was june 22 and it was a joy.  all 3 did great and by great i mean it was funny.  there were 8 children in the wedding and they all staggered down the aisle and then anders went up on stage and picked his nose for the onlookers.  good times. 

rehearsal and the rare occasion of all 3 kids looking at camera:)     bridesmaids getting nails done. 

 

becky's getting married!!!                            hazel joined in on the hair appointment for the bride

and since we were all involved in the actual wedding, i finally picked up my phone to snap pics at the very end of the evening.  better late than never.

it was all so lovely and fun.  such a great celebration!!

THE GENERAL MERRIMENT

hazel sharing crackers with lena

she slid down by herself then laid back for a little rest.

sticker face dad.

hazel trying to help lena get dressed.  so sweet and she got a bit frustrated because it is harder than it looks:)

one day, while lena was in therapy, i surprised hazel and anders with a trip to boingo bounce.  told them we were going somewhere special, then went to lowes so they thought that was the "special place".  then we left lowes & went to boingo bounce.  you would've thought we pulled into disneyworld.  it's so fun doing surprises for you kids.  i mean, they LOVED it.

a friend of mine began an instagram hashtag called #truthtuesday.  they encourage folks to take real life pictures of things.  i looooove the idea.  so one of myine recently was simply my kitchen after breakfast.  

hazel asked for days for me to curl her hair.  it was difficult to explain that my hair is naturally curly & that we would have to work on hers to get it curly.  

apparently they don't need me at all.

anders is always dancing these days.

they both love the paper.  

now we are up north for our annual stay in northern michigan with my family.  matt drove us up, stopping in st louis for some appointments for lena.  then he left yesterday to go to kenya and uganda with 99balloons, and our loyal and amazing babysitter, karly, came up to help me in michigan.  the team going to africa will be doing some amazing things.  follow their story here and join me in praying for this amazing and important work!