Goodbye to Estella's First Tooth

Estella Dru lost her first tooth tonight. It was drama in the highest there for an hour or so, but she was a little trooper. She is SO proud of herself and can't stop smiling. I love that little thing. Congratulations, Sweet Girl!

Dinner with Beyonce'

This is what dinner looks like at everyone's house, right? Right?

Return to Normal

Since December 18, my entire family has been home with me. In this house. All of them. All day long. And whereas I love every single one of them more than anything on earth, I need my routine. I just do. And since December 18, I've been thrown. If Christmas break wasn't long enough, then we had the snow week. Then, yesterday, I was SO ready for normalcy again. It was Monday. The snow had melted. Everyone was headed back to work/school, and what did I do? I had to go and get sick. Matt was home all day taking care of me and Jeb, bless his heart. He is so precious. But it set me back again. Another day away from the return of normal.

But today... today has been a good day. I feel much better. Matt is at work. The girls are at school. Life is starting to feel right again. Whew! It's about time.

This morning I got up and began the slow process of getting my house picked up and organized. Because it was trashed. I mean, really trashed. I started in the kitchen, and very soon I heard, "Hi, Mommy." He knows he's not supposed to climb up to the bar, but he does anyway. And normally, I would have made him get down, but today, I went to get my camera. It was a sweet sight. Just me and Jeb. Doing our thing. Just rollin' with our routine. I love it.

Cheese.

(Warning: This may ONLY be funny to members of the Slaughter family.) A week or so ago, we packed up the kids and headed out to the Gentry Safari. (I'm always amazed that I can see a lion, tiger, bear, hippo and various other animals in Gentry, AR. Odd. Just odd.) Anyway, Matt had the camera, and was taking pictures of the animals as we drove along. The entire time, Jeb kept yelling, "Cheese! Cheese!" When we got home and downloaded the pictures, I saw this guy and had to call the whole family in the room where we proceeded to laugh uncontrollably for the next 30 minutes. I don't know what sort of animal this is, but apparently he knew his picture was being taken and 'cheesed' just like Jeb told him.

That'll teach him....

Matt and I went for a drive today since school is out again and we are all going a bit stir crazy in the house. Surprisingly enough, the kids were being quiet in the backseat, and all of a sudden, Matt asks, “What are you thinking about?” It threw me. He never asks that kind of thing…. Probably because I’m never quiet. So, I tried to distract him and said, “Nothing. I’ve just got writer brain. Ask later.” But he wouldn’t leave it alone, and so I came clean. And this is what I told him…. (Get ready because it’s very writer-ish.)

As we were creeping 10 mph in all the snow and ice, I couldn’t help but think it was all very metaphorical of life sometimes. We move about in our happy, warm places until all of a sudden the cruel cold hits... so unexpectedly. It forces us to our knees, makes us crawl, and steals our breath. What was touchable goes ice cold and stings our fingertips. What was familiar goes distant, unrecognizable. Where our hearts were uncovered and warm, now we have no choice but to bundle them up under layer after layer to keep them from freezing solid in mid-beat. Day to day routines are cancelled. Posts are abandoned. And we are left to wait for that moment when the warmth of day returns, and the bitter, unyielding cold is just a memory. When we can peel off the layers and let our hearts beat, exposed and unafraid. When life can’t get cancelled or posts abandoned. I told him I was ready for the sun to warm the world again.

That’ll teach him from asking me what I’m thinking.

I think when you lose someone, there’s always a little winter in your heart. Even in the dead of summer. Still, I’m praying summer days to hurry my way.

Snow Day.

I wasn't going to blog for a while, but I can't neglect our snowy day here in NWA. Here are just a few pictures so we'll be sure to remember...

Year in Review via Favorite Pictures...

I promise to slow down on the pictures in the upcoming weeks. I thought it would be good to do a year in review via some of my favorite pictures from 2009. This has been quite the year for us. A year of happiness, excitement, sadness, hopefulness. Thank God for hope, right?

So, here it is... the Slaughter Photo Year In Review....