I'd run to you

You know those moments that you just know you want to remember forever? You tell someone, and they say, "You should write that down!" I had a moment like that last weekend, and I've been thinking about it all week. Every time I recall what was said and the emotion, I smile. So I've decided to add it to my blog so I'll always have it.


Last Sunday night, it had started getting cloudy, and Heath and I knew that it was supposed to start storming. This isn't a problem for us or Baylen, but our lil' man doesn't care for thunder at all. We had just put Cash to bed, Baylen had been asleep for awhile, Heath was downstairs in his office working, and I was upstairs at my computer. The rain started, and a loud thunder started rolling. I remember stopping what I was doing knowing that I would hear a terrified voice from down the hall. 


Sure enough, as soon as the loud thunder boomed, Cash screamed for me, and I went running into his room. I climbed up in his bed, scooped him up, and held him tight. He was already sweaty, and tears were already rolling down his little cheeks. "Mommy, I don't like thunder."


"I know," I said. I reminded him that thunder was the way that God told people it was about to rain. I explained a little about hot air and cold air (being the science teacher) while I rocked him a little. He calmed down pretty quickly, but it was still raining hard and thundering a bit.


"Will you cuddle with me?" He had laid back down on his pillow and wanted me to stay and keep him company. Of course, I laid down with him, cuddling (he's my little cuddle-bug, B never cuddles) and loving the moment. Just as he was nodding off, it thundered again, and he was awake.


"Cash, you know when I was little, I was scared of thunder, too. Grandad told me that thunder was just a noise, and it couldn't hurt me." True enough, I was super scared of thunder and storms when I was little. As soon as it started in, I hit the floor running to my parents' room.


I squeezed my lil' man one more time. As I was about to get up, Cash rolled over and said, "Mommy, if there was thunder and you were scared, I'd run to you." 


Seriously. Those big brown eyes won me over for the millionth time, I gave him a kiss goodnight, tucked him in tight and said, "Goodnight." Needless to say, I had tears in my eyes when I closed his door and went downstairs.

Romans 3:23

Bible verse for the week of the letter A

Flashback Friday

September 16, 2009

I had almost forgotten how stinkin' cute Cash was at this age (15 months).

Then I ran across these pictures.

We were still on Covington, obviously, and I was enjoying an almost-fall day with my lil' man after school. His favorite outdoor toy at the time was some of Heath's broken arrows. He carried them around everywhere.

My little monkey of a boy ... time goes by too fast!

You know you need a nap when...

Wordless Wednesday

I'm so proud

Salsa: the abbreviated version

When I married Heath, I was joined to a family that loves hot food. I'm not sure I can put enough emphasis on the words loves and hot in the previous sentence. I can remember our first Fourth of July together, we had just gotten engaged and headed down for a weekend at his sister, Stacy's house. We lounged on her houseboat, skied (I was unsuccessful), danced, and ate loads of yummy food. It was there that I first witnessed the entire family enjoying a snack of Tabasco and Dorito's. Yes, that's right. Instead of pulling our peanut butter and crackers like my family, they chowed down on hot sauce.

From then on I knew that the love of hot and spicy foods was something that Heath had been instilled with, and from the very first year we were together, Heath has made homemade salsa. Not just any salsa, very, very hot salsa full of bright red tomatoes and only the hottest peppers. He even made jelly jars full of it for favors at our wedding!

This year, I really thought Heath was going to skip his salsa making project. He had plenty left from the previous year, his sister, Alison, had shared some of her's, and he just seemed too busy and caught up with the house to take the time.... until he came home from Paw Paw's last weekend with a box of garden grown tomatoes and a bag full of cowhorn peppers.

Here's the tomatoes all cut up. Yes, this is one of those huge plastic troughs from TSC. He usually makes enough to fill this up, but this year, he only made enough to fill it about a third full.

Here's all the peppers, onions, cilantro and spices.

The Doggett Family Recipe -- all ready to can.

While he usually makes 60-70 pints and quarts, he only made enough for a dozen jars this time. It should hold him though, because it's so hot, no one else ever eats it!

In case you're wondering...

Some friends who have visited us at our new house have asked us, "So how does Ruth like living out here?" I guess they remember that Ruth was an indoor cat when we lived on Covington, and now she's an outdoor kitty.

She's adapted really well. She explores the woods, visits the river, lies around on the porches or out on the concrete. I've caught her a few times napping in Heath's truck if the windows are down, and she's still annoyed by the boys. So really, she's doing just fine. Look for yourself, two ground squirrels and what seems to be a bird of some sort later, she's become quite the hunter.

Not the greatest video, but you can catch a glimpse of Ruth chasing and toying around with a ground squirrel she found.

This is what we found in the backyard right off the back steps. Nice.

A is for Apple and an Awesome day with friends

Last Thursday, we made a trip across the county to Jackson's Orchard. We were ready for a big day with lots of our friends, including my sister and Kennick. The goal of the trip was to play, explore the orchard, take a look at how the apples are brought in, check out a real apple tree, enjoy some yummy treats for the snack shop, and of course have lots of fun with special friends. 

My friend, Amy and I, had discussed a few weeks earlier the idea of planning little "field trips" with our toddlers around town, and this was our first one. I was excited because it lined up well with our letter that we were studying, and I had talked a lot with both the boys about apples, seeds, trees, and orchards. We had also been reading lots of books about apple trees.

Every time we visit Jackson's Orchard, this log cabin is B's first stop. He loves playing "peep-pie" out the doors and windows.

Kennick got in on the fun of the log cabin, too.

Austin Kip was ready to explore other areas though. He rounded up wagons for his friends and was all set.

Karalee took the big boys down the huge slides.

Then B and I took a trip down. Whee!

These were new, and the kids were excited about them, but of course, I needed to test them first to make sure they were safe. :)

They were pretending they were hamsters in a wheel. Hilarious!

Ms. Hannah Marie had fun driving the big 4x4 truck.

On our self-guided tour of the processing part of the barn, Eli decided to get right in and get to work!

Watch out - Hannah fell in love with the homemade peach ice cream!

Cheese!

We also enjoyed some time under the tent where all the straw bales were. The slide was Kennick and Hannah's favorite.

My boys preferred crawling through the tubes and running across the tops of the bales and jumping from one to another.

She's getting soooo close to walking on her own! Big girl!

I was so proud of Cash. He loved all over the goats, petting and scratching their heads. B was more cautious.

Hannah wasn't so sure about this one. I'll have to admit he was a bit spunky.

Every year I have the boys stand in front of this big apple and compare the pictures. Gracious, they grow a lot in a year!

Where are these 3 going?

On the way out, we stopped at an apple tree that was hanging with big, red apples. Of course, getting the boys not to pick them was a job, but I could tell they got the idea. 

"God made dat tree grow apples."

B liked hiding in the branches of the tree.

Yes, A is for apple and an Awesome day with friends

Apples, apples, apples

We finished up our letter Aa activities last week. Overall, I think our first week (it was actually a week and a half) went really well. I'm not really sure what my expectations were, but I know he learned some things in different areas and we had a lot of fun, so I'd have to say the beginning of our "school games" were a success!

Cash only did this game a few times. I think it was boring to him. After the second time we did it (on different days) he started purposefully matching the wrong shapes together. He would laugh and say, "That's not right, mommy!"

He's still working on his lacing skills. It's not his favorite thing to do either, but if I catch him in the right mood, he'll focus and try to finish it.

Although not perfect, I was very happy that he was so proud of his lacing job.

This is officially his new favorite. These are called Do-A-Dot markers. I think they originated from Bingo, right? Anyway, I let him and B play with them one afternoon, and then I gave him the letter A to make dots on. He concentrated and went slow so he could get the dots in the circles. Can't you tell he's focused (the tongue gives it away).

B loved the Do-A-Dot markers, too. I've been trying to work on colors with him in every activity, but he's still calling every color "geen." I'm not worried. He's having fun with us!

Glue stick time! Cash cut out the tree and some apples and glued them into place. While he was doing this, I explained to him that we were going to see real apple trees the next day. He was pretty pumped.

I'm not really sure what this activity is, but he had fun with it, too. The boy loves magnets so I knew it would be a hit. These are pom-poms (called fuzzy balls at our house) with magnets glued on the back of them. Cash takes the fuzzy ball magnets and places them on the circles around the picture. They stick because it's lying on my cookie sheet.

And of course, B had fun with the fuzzy ball magnets, too. He would laugh every time he'd get one of the magnets close to the cookie sheet and they would snap onto the metal sheet. He's learning about the attraction of magnets, too!

One and a half

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

- Psalm 127:3

Oh, me. Our little B is now 18 months old. A year and a half! My sister said to me yesterday, "I can't believe how big he's getting!" He is a big boy, still my baby, but a big boy. He's still a little "whipper snapper," very long and lean, but it's his stature and ways that make him seem like such a big boy. I guess it's because he tries to do whatever Cash does.

He's definitely our little talker. He can carry on a pretty good conversation with you, spouting off three word sentences and answering questions. His sweet little yes sounds more like, "Yesh." I love it. I would tell you all the words he says, but it's really too many. His vocabulary truly blows us away. His facial expressions are priceless. I even dug out our video camera this past week to try to capture some of his faces, but of course, he wouldn't perform on camera.

Baylen is still mainly a carnivore. He loves meats and fruits. I'm not sure if there is a vegetable that he eats, unless I sneak it in his smoothie (by the way, smoothies are the greatest!) He drinks water and his almond milk with no problem and has the family sweet tooth. We are still avoiding dairy products like yogurt (he eats coconut yogurt), cheese, and of course, whole milk and ice cream.

He is strong-willed, which is the nice way of saying he's stubborn and throws little "fits" when things don't go his way. This is completely new to us because Cash is pretty laid back. We are working with Baylen trying to calm his temper before he throws a tantrum, throws something or hits his brother. It's a work in progress, and it's definitely something that I am constantly seeking God's guidance about. 

B is a handful at times, but we are slowly figuring him out. We pray that our parenting will guide him in the right direction - toward God. As he grows we will continue to learn how this little guy works and pray that he lives his life to glorify God.

Happy one and a half, Baylen! We love you.

Flashback Friday

March 23, 2010

I thought this would be an appropriate flashback picture since our little B is 18 months old today. Although he has grown and changed so much, he's still our little B.

Friends for life

After Heath and I had been married awhile, we decided that we needed to find a small group with young couples like ourselves that were going through the same milestones as us. We had currently been in a young careers small group, and even though those people were dear friends, we felt like God was calling us to step out and connect with new people.

We found a group that was full of young couples, recently married, and only a few had already started having babies. We grew to love this group of friends very quickly. As the months and years passed by, we all became our own close family in a way. We were there for each other when we lost grandparents, parents, had our first babies, went on mission trips, and for some even took the steps and became missionaries. It was during the time that we were all preparing to go to south Asia on a mission trip that I believe we became so close, especially spiritually. We walked through a study together over the period of a couple of months, and we were able to really bond with each other. We learned each others weaknesses, strengths, and hearts, and really, once you've been to a third world country to share the love of Jesus with someone, you become friends for life.

There's one couple in particular that we have stayed very close to. Even though in the past year, the Lord has put more distance between us, we have stayed close. Bryan and Jennifer are some of the most faithful people that we know, and we've been so blessed by their friendship over the past five years or so. We went to visit them and their precious Hannah last weekend to catch up, fellowship, share a meal, and just be together. We live about an hour apart, but we were more than willing to make the drive to see their new place and, of course, them! They have a beautiful pond in their front yard and living at the pond is a duck named Donald. Cash, of course, wanted to feed "dat duck."

What's on the menu? Crushed corn, of course.

Bryan was explaining to Cash exactly where to put Donald's food.

See the pond in the background? Beautiful view from the front of their house...

We talked, ate, and the boys watched animal and hunting videos on Heath's phone.

Yes, indeed, these are the kind of friends where you can let your kids run around without pants on, and it's okay.

We attempted a picture of the three little ones together. B was ready on this one.

Hannah was happy and clapping on this one. Cash was definitely saying cheese, but no smile.

Look at these faces. Love it.

Here it is ... Mostly smiles from my boys and laughing and clapping from Hannah. It's a keeper!

Love this sweet family including Ms Hannah!