4 years.

Four years.
Just like that.
I can't quite believe our time in Oklahoma is almost over.
I was so sure these years would creep by.
Notsomuch...

{Move in day 2009 / Move out day 2013}

Water Break

We have so much to do right now.
Moving out of our house in one week.
Yikes-o-rama.
But.
When God gives you an absolutely lovely day and your husband sneakily whispers, "What do you think about getting the s-p-r-i-n-k-l-e-r out for the girls and letting them play in backyard?" you stop everything and decide a water break is exactly what everyone needs.

Just Crazy Old Life...

It's official: we sold our home!

We had the closing last week -- money in the bank, y'all.

We are currently packing up for our two upcoming moves.

One across town in two weeks.
And one across country to Cleveland in seven weeks.

Have you ever had to pack up a house with two kids still living in it?!

But enough about packing and never-ending messes.

Here are a few snippets of daily life when we don't have a tape gun and Sharpie marker in our hand...

We have been outside every chance we get!
Mina is not exactly tall enough for the tricycle, but she sure looks cute pretending to be a big girl!

This cutie goes by the name Adventure Girl Aubrey!
Outdoors is definitely her happy place.

While the picture below was taken at midday, this is the same exact face that pops up at 6:58 a.m. each morning (or earlier...) on my side of the bed. Cutest alarm clock ever!
(By the way, she's a drool machine. She has four new teeth to thank for that!)

When Daniel's home, I know where the girls are going to be...

Oh how they love their Daddy!

Aubrey wanted to have a picnic dinner in the backyard one evening, so we did!

Mina was invited to a birthday party at Gymboree and had an absolute blast!

I'm already looking up Gymboree classes in Cleveland.

Daniel flew to Cleveland (20-hour-roundtrip) and miraculously found a rental home for us.

And this is what happens when your husband leans over your shoulder while you're scrolling through recent posts on Pinterest...."WHAT ARE THOSE?! LET'S MAKE 'EM!!" (In case you're wondering, it's a chocolate chip cookie dough brownie bomb, and good heavens above it's delicious.)

And now, to conclude this totally random post, here are two videos that completely encapsulate Aubrey and Mina:

I started videoing midway through Aubrey's latest performance.

Aubrey is full of imagination and dramatic play these days.

Oh how I love this girl...

Mina "SHHH"ing me in the middle of my singing.

She is seriously the happiest girl on the planet. 

I sure do love my crazy life, my crazy husband, and my crazy girls!

We've Got to Move It, Move It...

I know it's been pretty quiet on the blog for awhile.
The thing is, I've been having an all out wrestling match with God.

Through lots of tears, days of pouting, and a few cuss words tossed in the mix -- I can now say that I have seen the light.

So what in the world had me all bent out of shape?
Well, lots of things actually, but mostly...
Moving.

You see, we put our house on the market and had a contract in five days.
That sounds great, right?
Wrong.
It means that we have to move into a rental home here in Oklahoma before we move into another rental home in Cleveland this June.
That's two moves in two months.

The first rental house is one we'll only be living in for about 4-6 weeks.
We thought we had two great renting options lined up, but both fell through within two weeks.
We then called tons of rental properties.
No one was interested in only a 4-6 week lease.
We looked around to see about an apartment/temporary relocation housing.
There was either a 6-month minimum lease or it was way, way too expensive.

We have a realtor friend who mentioned that he owned a small property he was about to put up for sale.
Since we were in a bind, he would be willing to let us rent it.
All we'd have to do is cover the mortgage and utilities.
No deposit, no lengthy application to fill out.
Plain and simple: If you want it, it's yours.
Daniel went to look at the property and called to tell me, "It's a dump, honey...you're going to freak out."
The only positive thing he could think to say was, "Uh...it has a dishwasher..."

Coming to the realization that we had NO other option was agony.

Bottomline: the house was affordable and the area was safe.

During this whole ordeal, I discovered that when my life/comfort hangs in the balance I start questioning, "Is God really working all this out?" I start doubting His goodness all because it's not what I would have chosen.

What really stings is when I realize that while I'm pitching a fit over this housing situation, we will still live better than the majority of the world.

We will have warm showers/baths every day.
We can adjust the temperature to our exact comfort level.
We will have our own beds.
We will have a grocery store less than a mile away.
A kitchen to fix food.
A backyard for the girls to run and play.

So there you have it.

We're going to be living in this God-given dump for a month.

Am I excited about it?
No.
Is God still a good God?
Yes.
Does He love me?
Absolutely.

Because you know what?
I'm realizing you can see God's goodness and love just as well through chain link as you can through a white picket fence.

My Two Girls

Over the Easter weekend, Daniel took some pictures of the girls and me.
If you're a mom, you know how rare it is to get a picture with your littles.
I decided, with the inspiration of these photos (and the out-takes), to write a little bit of what life is like right now.

First of all, life with two little girls is full.
It's amazing to me how adding one more little person can create exponentially more work.
But you won't hear me complain (probably because I'm too tired!). 

Life is crazy and good.
Crazy good, actually.

So, let's start with Miss Aubrey (who organized these photo-shoot poses, I might add).

The daughter who doesn't let me forget for a millisecond just how awesomely spectacular she is... 

There is always a "show" she's ready to perform, and she is constantly feeding me my lines...

"Ok, Mom, pretend we're on a magical cloud and I come floating down from a gorgeous rainbow and you say, 'Oooh what a beautiful princess! Isn't her dress lovely?!' and then..." It goes on and on and on. I'm not going to lie, it can be exhausting.

Aubrey begs me to give her homework and asks when I'll ever give her chores to do.

Two things I'm happy to start implementing. :)

She has a new obsession with coloring, drawing, and making cards. 

She has been asking me to teach her how to read for awhile, so we've officially started the Bob books. I am amazed at how quickly she's picking it up. 

She has started making her bed, brushing her teeth, going to the bathroom, and getting dressed all by herself.

Aubrey asks some really good / deep theological questions, and I'm blown away by how much she's processing. I pray her little heart is always seeking after God's truth. 

While she loves lots of girly things, her favorite shows to watch are Rescue Bots and Wild Kratts.

She would live outdoors if we'd let her.

Her relationship with Mina is (slowly) becoming less dramatic. 

Mina's pinching has drastically decreased, but Aubrey's memory hasn't exactly forgotten those early days of abuse. Forgiveness is a lifelong lesson, isn't it?

I wouldn't say Aubrey and Mina are anywhere near becoming best friends, but their relationship is certainly growing...

I even caught this video of them the other day in the backyard while I was folding laundry.

Now, onto our sweet, little Mina.
She has been home a little over two months now. 

I think she's spent about 90 percent of that time within arms reach of me, which I have absolutely loved. 

I feel like I'm still catching up on those 18 months of her life that I wasn't a part of. 

I wonder if I'll always feel like I'm making up for lost time?

I absolutely cannot get enough of her.

She is just downright amazing
Silly, sweet, saucy, and simply wonderful.
Mina has several words she says regularly now: Mama, Daddy, Baaboo (Aubrey), bye-bye, nye-nye (nite-nite), ank ooo (thank you), uv u (love you), biper (diaper), and some others I just can't think of at the moment.
She loves making animal sounds (I'm pretty sure her kitty "meow" and lion "roar" are my two favorites).
She would be completely content to sit in a lap and read books all day long or be outside playing.
Right now she's still sleeping on a crib mattress beside our bed at night. Each morning she wakes up ready to be scooped up into our bed for snuggles and smooches. It is THE best way to start the day.

Here is a video of Mina laughing -- this was taken with my phone shortly after she had been home.

Her deep, raspy chuckles crack me up.

While life is definitely nuts -- and I find myself craving moments of "me" time -- I cannot remember a time when I've been happier. I have literally been blessed from head to toe!

Sweet Friends

This past week we had some of the greatest friends on the planet stay with us.

{photo courtesy of Aubrey}

Daniel and Phil's (aka: Sküp) friendship goes all the way back to sophomore year of college...

{circa 2001}

Through college, backward hats / haircuts (ha), medical school, marriage, starting a family, and residency -- these guys have maintained a strong friendship despite living in different states for over 5 years now.

Because of that, Sküp's wife (Cara) and I have grown close through the years as well.
It was so, so great getting to actually spend some "facetime" together!

It meant the world to us that this sweet family would travel all the way from Alabama to Oklahoma to come see us. Not to mention they drove over 700 miles with their little munchkin -- now that is true love and friendship!

So, with three little ones (ages 4, 1, and 1) in the mix, we tried to accommodate nap / bedtime schedules while still showing them some of the Sooner State. The cold front that came through didn't help matters, but we still managed to squeeze in some outings -- the first being a trip to the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

Next up: a trip to the zoo one afternoon...

By the way, the two tiniest munchkins were absolutely adorable together.
There was the exchanging of grins and giggles, hand-holding, hugs, and just pure sweetness between the two of them.

Fyi...Sküp had a dandelion behind his ear compliments of Aubrey.
And speaking of Aubrey, she LOVED Mrs. Cara.
Anytime I tried taking a photo with Cara in it, she would run up to be in the shot too.
After the zoo, we took our little wild animals out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
The three amigos!


One afternoon it warmed up a bit, so we hit some hiking trails.
Real men wear diaper bags through the woods, by the way...

And just because it is a rare occasion to have a family photo taken with everyone looking AND smiling -- a big THANK YOU to Sküp for taking this picture!

Oh how we miss this sweet family already!

We may just be plotting an arranged marriage between their little M and our little M. 

Then we'll officially be "family", and we'll all live happily ever after! :)

Easter Happenings / Ramblings

After a long Spring Break, Aubrey was more than ready to hop back to school.
Probably because I told her the class was going to be having an Easter Egg Hunt!
Can you tell "somebunny" was super excited about it?!

I noticed as we walked into the church that none of the other kids had their baskets.

Evidently the flyer sent home before Spring Break said Monday was egg drop-off day and Wednesday was the actual egg hunt. Poor Aubrey -- all decked out in her bunny dress, basket in hand just ready for a good old time. Luckily she handled the news well, "That's okay, Mom! This means I get to wear my outfit again!"

And wear that outfit again, she did!

Here she is -- two days later -- just as excited as before! 

(Have I mentioned before how much I love this girl?!)

I'm going to be honest, I kinda struggle with Easter.

I get a little squeamish when I feel like Jesus gets trampled over by a bunny.

So, I try to find ways to include Him in secular events.

Maybe it's totally lame or maybe even on the fringe of being sacrilegious, but well...here's what Aubrey and I came up with this year...

Just two days later, it was time for the Laws Annual Egg Hunt!
My sweet honey-bunny and my little chick-a-dee grabbed their baskets and were ready to go!

It was, as always, SO MUCH FUN!
And I love that Jennifer incorporated framed scripture verses throughout.

The girls were all smiles and giggles! 

(Except when I had to get Mina out of the bounce house when there were bigger kids wanting to bounce!)

So, one unexpected event took place this year: Aubrey took one look at the Easter Bunny and announced, "That's just a person wearing a costume, Mom!" When I pulled her to the side and asked her why she said that, she said, "Mom, I have eyes -- I can SEE that it's just a person wearing a costume." What do you say to that? So. Well. I guess that does it for the Easter Bunny. She still humored me and let me take her picture.

There was no way Miss Mina was going to sit in that bunny's lap. It scared her half to death, and honestly, I didn't feel it would be wise to force the sweet girl to do it.

When it came to the actual hunt, I was curious to see how our littlest chick would do.
She was downright precious with her basket propped on her shoulder like a purse (she LOVES purses). She spotted a pink egg and opened it immediately to see what was inside.

Aubrey found tons of eggs, all the while keeping a running inventory with each stride. 

When she saw that Mina only had one egg, she voluntarily gave some of hers to little sis.

It was so sweet, and Mina was pumped to discover new treasures inside! 

I don't know why the girls have a confused look on their face in the picture, but Daddy sure looks handsome. :)

Little Sidenote: Right as the whistle blew for the kids to take off and find eggs, a little boy fell hard and just laid there crying. While his parents were trying to encourage him to get up, Daniel dashed off and collected tons of eggs for him. It melted my heart. He's the best.

Last year while I was helping Jennifer set up for the egg hunt, we spotted a ladybug. Jennifer said, "Next year, you'll have your new little one here! I just know it!" (Read more about it: last year's egg hunt and this story is featured on Chickabug.) It was so, so special being there as a family of FOUR.

Later in the weekend, Aubrey and I set up a little Easter cupcake decorating "shop" while Mina napped.
I'm really trying to make an effort to do some Aubrey-focused activities during those rare moments it's just the two of us. I let her have full reign when it came to decorating, and she had an absolute blast.

Aubrey asked me to take a video of her and her "Cupcake Shop" -- I must say this a super random video. 

*And just so you know, we moved Mina over to the table after filming. ;) 

By the way, did you see that post-nap cowlick?! Love it!

Each night starting twelve days before Easter Sunday, we did our Resurrection Eggs as a family.

I'm hoping this goes smoother as the girls get a little older, because most nights it ended up being a fight over who got to open the carton and color-coded egg. Talk about DRAMA.

On Good Friday, Daniel took Aubrey to our church for a self-guided walk-thru of the defining moments of the crucifixion. At the end, there was an opportunity to nail one of your sins to the cross. Daniel said Aubrey nailed, "Yelling at Mina." Too bad this got nailed on the 10th day of the Resurrection Eggs. ;)

Easter morning we made resurrection rolls. 

I think we might make this family tradition...it was so nice to be gathered around the table, reading the Word, and making the story of Easter more hands-on for the girls. 

Phew...it was definitely a full week leading up to Easter!

I am thankful for all the moments that created opportunities to talk about the amazing, miraculous love of Christ. What an incredible God we serve!