Rappleye Wrap-up

Cambry and Vienna love playing together. Cambry loves to be spun and pushed in the office chair. One night, she climbed on the office chair and patted the spot right next to her for Vienna to sit there. Now, she won't spin or be pushed without Vienna.

Around the corner from where we live, there's this house that is about as deep south and red neck as you can get with a Confederate flag, 2-liter soda bottle tree and a lot of other goodness.

Cambry has been becoming more and more social with other toddlers. It's so fun to watch her goofy personality come out in front of other people. Recently, we dropped her off to be baby sat by a family in the ward. Their daughter has had a hard time with nursery and playing with other kids. By the time we got back, they were good buddies. That was really special for me to see how Cambry is able to reach out like that. 

Sorry for the little tangent there, but these next few photos just got me thinking about Cambers social development. Anyway, here are a couple photos of Cambry playing with her friend Caroline.

 Cambry loved to push, but hated being pushed

"Oh, the hood is open. I'll put my head in it." Sometimes, I just wish I knew what she was thinking. 

When we first moved here, the backyard was a disaster. It was pile of dead leaves, fallen tree branches, a couple of failed garden attempts and a mess. We cleared out some room for a yard and planted some seeds. A couple weeks ago, a bunch of little sprouts had come in.

Now, the grass is coming in full force. There is something oddly satisfying with making things grow. It reminds of Elder Uchtdorf's words: 

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty." 

It's so true. If there is one thing that our backyard teaches us, it's that anybody can create.

Joslyn mowed the lawn for the first time in 10 years. In the RAIN

The kids got a good kick out of watching their mom mow the lawn

How can you not love this face!

Cambry is becoming quite the good little helper. Here she is helping mom clean up the front yard.

She got a little distracted playing with leaves.

Vienna is becoming quite refined by moving up from bottles to sippy cups.

Love this girl!

Apparently Cambry has been missing here old car seat.

Guess who went in the potty for the first time? 

Don't let this fool you. She's still a long way out. We just set the potty out for her to get used to the idea. She has gone in the potty a couple times, but we aren't making a real effort at potty training.

The Strawberry Patch

On evening after school, we went to pick some strawberries at patch by our house. Cambry was a natural at it. She would pick the strawberry and actually put it in the bucket.

Vienna picked some leaves and tried real hard to eat them too.

The girls - best picks in the patch.

About halfway through, we told Cambry that she can eat some while she picks. Every strawberry she picked from then on end up in her mouth.

Vienna was more interested in eating the hay.

The lighting was so great. So, Joslyn tried snapping a few photos of Vienna, but she was too tired to perform.

Cambry didn't want to be left out. So, she worked her way into the photo shoot. I love the strawberry juice all over her face.

After all that picking, the girls weren't great models - this is the best we got.

Things that matter

I'm out of the running for mom of the year.

I woke up irritated.  Why? Who knows.  After giving the girls breakfast we headed out to a nearby lake to run it out.  Since it was drizzling and chilly (50ish) I kept my babies in their footie pajamas and put hats and jackets on them.  After 2 laps, I still had energy, but C had been patient long enough about being in the stroller.  I thought- no big deal, I'll get her out to run around, leave the Vienna strapped in the stroller for a lakeside view, and run sprints back and forth in front of the lake.  Cambers thought it was a great game, and Veena enjoyed the tickles she got each time I made it back to her in the stroller.
  Then to my utter horror, after sprinting about 70 yards away from the stroller, I turned around and I saw it ever so slowly rolling towards the lake.  It was like one of those bad dreams where you're running as fast as you can, but you're not going anywhere. It eased onto the grass and the front wheel rolled off the one foot drop off and sloshed into the water. Still running my heart out. The back wheels followed. The whole stroller did a slow nose dive, tipping forward and completely submerging my little angel under water strapped in the stroller. After centuries it seemed like, I lept into the water in the lake I once said you couldn't pay me enough to touch, struggled to flip the stroller back up to get my baby above water.
   There she was still a foot underwater, eyes wide open and surprised. With super human strength and speed that no doubt was a divine gift I pulled the stroller high enough where  V's face could be above water and unbuckled the dozens of buckles it felt like that had her securely in place, and held my calm that was calm as could be.  Couple of coughs, couple of smiles, couple of shivers (yes, it was Cambry on the waters edge that was FREAKING OUT, poor girl).
  Suddenly my petty irritation vanished and my to-do-list for today was unimportant and what really matters became a priority. We had more snuggles, hugs and kisses, less selfishness, more service and I love you's, less meaningless tasks and errands, and more prayers full of gratitude. I'm so so grateful that I got to put my child in her bed tonight, unharmed and happy.

Things that matter

Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon

My first race post broken leg and babies!  It felt sooo good to be running with others that share my passion- even if I didn't know a soul.  I didn't train nearly as well as I would've liked, and I hope to never race that unprepared again. I was so anxious beforehand, but I love feeling the adrenaline  and excitement that comes when you get a few thousand people together to run the same course.  It was nice to be with a crowd again where farmer blows and logies are the norm. I want to give a shout out to the 2 girls I stalked for 10 miles.  I found them almost immediately on the course, and liked their pace so I stayed right with them without their knowledge (creeper!).  They pushed me harder than I would've pushed myself, and even announced how fast we did each mile (yes, that's how close I was). I couldn't keep up with them in the end, but I attribute my 2:04 time to them.

Traffic was so bad and Devin was trying so hard to get himself and our girls at the finish line to see me cross.  When he finally got in the vicinity, he slapped the girls in the stroller, and sliced his head on the trunk, poor guy.  Unfortunately he didn't make it in time and the camera was left in the car, so we couldn't even recreate the moment.   It was so great to have him there to support me though and I was grateful to give my girls sweaty kisses afterwards. Cambers kept throwing her hands in the air and saying, "Yay!!" followed by clapping.  I think we'll keep her.

We got to stay with Uncle Lindz and Aunt Lil again for the weekend.  They were so gracious to make time for us, feed us, and take care of us.  I forget how nice it is to be somewhere besides our own house and feel at home.  The kindred spirits Lindz and Vienna got some quality time together. I'm sad this pic is a little blurry, but she had a great time snuggling with him and jumping on his lap.

Cambry had a great time exploring the house and not being touched.

V pulled Lil in close to get some grandma-like love.  She's missing her grandmas and Lil is missing her grand babies so it was a good match. We are counting our blessings that President and Sister Thomas serve only a few hours away from us, and are not looking forward to July when they leave.

Easter

Looking at all our Easter Pictures, it's very secular, so I just want to say: to me, the most glorious phrase in the whole new testament are "He is Risen." It was so humbling to teach Cambry about the Resurrection this year and to reflect on God's love for us, for giving us the matchless gift of His Son Jesus Christ.  We are so grateful for our Savior's divine atonement. 

With that said.  Here are our Easter pics:

We started Easter early because we got packages from family! Thanks Grandma Rappleye and Grandma Ber!

We had an Easter egg hunt in our front yard, and it was so great to watch Cambers scamper around finding eggs.

This is where these 2 discovered that candy is actually inside!

Dying Easter eggs is always a good laugh.

I think this is the last year the Easter bunny hides Devin's basket.  He wasn't too thrilled after helping Cambers find her basket to putter around the house looking for his Grandma Ber chocolate egg. He's a good sport.

We tried to get a family photo before church at the temple, but the sun was so bright, none of us could really open our eyes.  Good effort team Rappleye.

We had our Easter feast with our good friends the Rivers.  Becky and I are making Resurrection rolls.  They're marshmallows (symbolizing Christ's purity) dipped in butter (the oils put on Christ's body), then rolled in cinnamon sugar (spices), wrapped in cinnamon roll dough (the tomb).  When they're cooked, they are hollow- Chirst is risen! It was a cute lesson for our kids.

Another great Easter egg hunt.  C was much quicker at finding eggs, probably remembering what's inside.

 Little break to push V in the swing

The Rivers were so nice to host the Easter dinner. Too bad we were to busy feeding/chasing our kids around to take pictures of the delicious dinner. The food and the company were supreme.