Mars and Venus, Spaghetti and Waffles, and whatever else you want to call it.

Another entire month has gone by since I last blogged. June has been a wonderful month for us. So far we:

1. completed three weeks of Summer Dreams, our summer camp at the Dream Center. The kids and I are having a blast!
2. celebrated our fifth anniversary. I guess I'll eventually get around to posting some pictures of that fun evening on here.
3. had Ethan's nine-month check-up. He's 22 lbs. 10 oz. (75th percentile), 30.25 inches (95th percentile), and is otherwise growing into a healthy little boy.
4. have avoided the beach. Good thing, because it's been really hot.
5. got our budget set for the next three months as we prepare for Dan to transition to a new job. Five weeks of vacation/sick time a year plus a nice raise in pay. We are now preparing to hit our debt square in the gut. Praise God for providing!

But that's not quite the point of this post. I have just been noticing as I watch Ethan and Emma grow...what a HUGE difference between boys and girls. I just thought I'd list a few of those differences here. Some of the differences...

...girls can sit and watch a movie at a fairly young age. Ethan's only relationship with the television is that it's a great big drum on which he can bang his hand.

...girls just casually notice their surroundings, but boys have to explore their surroundings. And everything in their surroundings.

...girls like to be clean. Boys don't, unless it means they're naked in the bath tub splashing the water.

...girls like to see how high they can build their block towers. Boys have to see how quickly they can knock the block tower down.

...girls don't like to admit when they've passed gas. Boys laugh at themselves farting at such an early age. Seriously, he just laughed at himself two days ago after he passed gas.

Just a few things that I've learned. I am all-girl (as is Emma), so I imagine that she and I are in for a lot of learning with her 100% boy little brother.

Still, it's so amazing to me how God wired us so differently from the get-go. Just incredible...

Funny stuff

I used to love the show Kids Say the Darndest Things. Although, I always wondered what the parents thought. Were they embarassed? Proud? Wondering where their children heard the things they were saying?

I think Emma is in that stage now. She says things, and I am not sure if she's repeating something she's heard me say or if she's learning to express her own thoughts more eloquently. Either way, here are a few funny conversations we've had lately.

(While riding in the car to her grandparents' house)
Emma: Why we have to go to Papoo and Gigi's?
Me: We don't have to, but we want to go see our family.
Emma: Oh.

(Five minutes later...)
Emma: Why we have to go to Papoo and Gigi's?
Me: Because we love our family, and we want to spend time with them. Why, do you not want to go?
Emma: No, I wanna go.
Me: Okay.

(Two minutes later...)
Emma: Why we have to go to Papoo and Gigi's?
Me: We just do. Why do you have to ask so many questions?
Emma: (without a second thought) 'Cuz I a kid.

(And on another occasion in our bedroom, when Emma was obviously feeling a little jealous about the attention we were giving her brother)
Me: Emma, are you sad?
Emma: Yeah.
Me: Why? Do you not want a brother anymore?
Emma: No. I not want a brother.
Me: Why not?
Emma: I want a baby sister now.
Me: Oh.
Emma: Can we go get her tomorrow?

Don't you just love the way the three-year-olds look at the world?

Just because I love my husband

Dan asked me to post some pictures to the blog, just for those who don't have Facebook or can't access it on a regular basis. Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Emma decided to have a little fashion show in all of her princess costumes...In less than 10 minutes.

Ethan's first dip in the pool. He wasn't sure what to think at first, but eventually he really enjoyed it!

Emma DID NOT care for the pool last year. Of course this year, she was jumping in from the sides and doggie-paddling around the pool. Yay!

I love my babies. So sweet!

I love you, Dan!

Catching up is hard to do

I can't believe we're already more than half-way done with May. 2009 is flying by, and the kids are growing like crazy!

Our little football player Ethan is ON THE MOVE! He's got the army crawl down to a sport, and with our slick, wood floors he is superfast. I was telling someone today that having a little boy as a second child is a huge adjustment. Even as an infant, Emma was fairly content most of the time to sit still and play with her toys. Not Ethan. And for some reason, he is always after the power cords. He's our super-adventurous little man, and I have realized that as much as Emma is all prissy girl, he is rough-and-tumble boy. Just how God designed them to be...

And our sweet little princess is learning and growing so much. She's just gone through a huge growth spurt and put on about three inches. Makes those summer shorts we bought in March a little too short, so we had to get some new ones. She's getting really excited that she gets to have her "own school" at her "own house" starting this fall. I was going to wait another year to start homeschooling, but she really wants to learn about her "A-B-C"s and her "alphabets".

Here are a few pictures of what May has looked like so far for "Team Delaney" (that's what we call our family when we're talking to the kids).

Daddy and Ethan showing off his muscles. Grrrrrrr!

Emma and her pal playing in the inflatable pool. The great part is, we didn't even have to put on sunscreen because they were under the patio!

Hopefully May will bring lots more excitement and we'll be able to post some new pictures soon...

Eat your heart out, Dave Ramsey!

Anyone who's been friends with us for long enough knows that we are trying really hard to GET OUT OF DEBT. Thanks to the wisdom of Dave Ramsey and by the grace of God, we are well on our way with a long way to go.

We have been trying to save money in so many ways: we've cut cable, gone to one cell phone, and don't often see the inside of a restaurant--even if it's just for fast food. Well, we just had the brilliant idea to take our frugality a step farther by cutting Dan's hair at home instead of paying for it. And here are two little words that we learned: BAD and IDEA!

Take a look at these:

I am not sure what I was thinking or doing. Thank goodness my wonderful husband has a good sense of humor and that the lady at SportsClips could fix this. We may have taken a lot of things out of the budget, but from now on we'll always leave money for a professional hair cut!

Spring is in Full Swing!

Anybody else loving this weather? Even the rain in the springtime is wonderful, because it makes the grass greener and the flowers fuller. We have certainly been enjoying it!

We've had a noneventful April thus far. Our biggest excitement was going to Edgemoor for a few days to visit with my Dad and family. Other than that, not too much to report.

Here are some great pictures we snapped before we had to come back home last week.

Going to enjoy the calm while it's here. There are busy seasons ahead...

Ta Da!

"Cleanliness is next to godliness." That's somewhere in the Bible, right? Like in 2 Genesis...

I know, it's not. But I have to admit that it does feel really good to have a better-organized house. When one area of my life is chaotic (i.e., my house is a mess), that carries over into every other area of my life.

That being said, here is the finished product of weeks of work.

1. The medicine drawer. Pills, First Aid, and Bandages are all separated out so they're easier to find.


2. The bathroom counter. I threw out almost two bags of old make-up and medicine from our bathroom. Yuck! That makes it so much easier to see what we have and to keep our countertop clutter-free.

3. Gift bags and wrapping. One of my favorite changes. I bought some of the oversized Ziploc bags and separated out Christmas gift bags, other special occasion gift bags, tissue paper, and other wrapping supplies. Now, instead of trying to find the needle in the haystack (or the gift bag in the big pile of bags) I can easily find what I'm looking for.


4. The linen closet. Long was this closet the keep-all for our junk. No longer. Now it holds our toilet paper/paper towels, extra cleaning supplies and toiletries, and of course, the linens. I even made it easier by separating the separate sheet sets into the oversized Ziploc bags and labeling what is in each bag.

5. The laundry/utility room. We used to keep all of Dan's tools and 1,000 other things in here. Since he finished organizing the storage room, though, we can now use the laundry room to hold our laundry stuff and a few other items we need around the house (light bulbs, furniture movers, and child-proofing supplies). I would get a picture of the great job Dan did in the storage room, but it is raining and I am not going out in that mess right now!

6. The pantry. I got rid of old food and organized the shelves. Each shelf holds similar items: the top shelf is for pastas/rice, then the next shelf is for sauces/condiments/cans, then snack and breakfast foods, and then baking supplies. And I also finally organized all of our plastic utensils and party supplies (plates and cups).

I have to make one more run to Goodwill and finish weeding the last 1/3 of the flowerbed (again, the rain has been holding me back) and it will 100%, officially complete.

And my house feels peaceful once again...