Saturday to remember

Mine is a life truly blessed. My family is amazing: a husband who loves me and makes me laugh, two of the worlds cutest kids, in-laws that couldn't be greater, a sister I admire, a mom I respect...and a dad who hooks me up.

Dr./Rev./Mr. Randy Alcorn (Pops) recently met some members of the Christian rock band Third Day at an event he was speaking at in Atlanta. The bass player Tai Anderson had read some of his books, and they had some great conversations both there and later by phone and email. The best conversation they had included an invitation to a concert at the Clark County Amphitheater this past Saturday. Free tickets. 4 rows back. Dead center. It gets better. Toby Mac performed before Third Day. Ha-ha-heavenbound, I was going to marry him some day. But wait, it gets even better still. Backstage passes. Dinner with the band before the concert. Oh yes, and during the concert, a song dedicated to "some great new friends, the Alcorn family."

Dan stayed home with the kids and missed one of the best nights in recent memory, so I got to take my friend Melissa (happy b-day!!) who, besides being my chapstick sister, is now my best/only gomer sister. (Huge Third Day fans are called gomers. I really don't know why, and might not ever want to.)

Dinner was truly unforgettable. Not just the fried zucchini. It was so great to see these guys as who they really are...not just rock stars, but true men of God who are genuinely seeking His will for their lives. Plus they were funny. Melissa and I jokingly asked where the Hummer limo was to take us to dinner and Tai said, "Well we used to have one, but then we read the Treasure Principle..." Darn that book.

So thank you Pops for being the kind of man that rock stars want to hang out with. And for letting me tag along. You may not have the incredible voice of Mac Powell, or the moves of Toby Mac, but you are my own personal rock star.

And thank you Third Day for staying true to what you believe in, and paying for my delicious bacon cheeseburger.

My new best friends. Mark Lee, Brad Avery, Mac Powell, Tai Anderson, and David Carr.

We also saw that 42 year old Toby Mac is as cool as ever.

...as a jay bird

Keeping you updated on our kids: Ty's favorite thing is being naked. Jake's favorite thing (besides cars) is messing with our digital camera. Hence the fuzzy naked picture. And as you can see, my favorite thing is NOT cleaning my living room.

Ain't nothin but a hound dog

Dan and I are a lot alike in many ways. We're not the couple that has one spender and one penny pincher. Neither one of us is super outgoing or painfully shy. We both say "potato" and "tomato" like any normal American. But we have one major difference: I am a dog-lover and he is a dog-hater. When we got married neither of us assumed this would be a problem. He knew we'd never have a dog, and I knew I would talk him into it someday.

That someday is upon us. We've made a deal.

Dan has been begging me to let him buy a plasma TV since they first came out, and I've simply been pointing out that we already have a TV, 2 TV's in fact, that work just fine. But I realized recently that if I gave in to buying a plasma TV, he would have to give in to one of my requests. Plasma=dog.

It probably won't be until next summer when we move to a new house and the boys are a bit older, but it's most likely going to happen. The other night we were online looking at which dogs Dan would approve. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of options. Does anyone know of a dog that doesn't shed, drool, bark, or ever get sick and preferably hunts for its own food so we don't have to ever buy any? He doesn't want a big dog inside, and I say if you have a dog, what's the point of keeping it outside all the time.

I'm posting pictures of two of my favorites. They're both "hybrid" dogs which sounds better than "mutts" but people are breeding them on purpose because they're so cute and have great personalities. Tell me what you think!


This is a Mauzer, a Maltese/Mini Schnauzer mix.

This is a Beabull, a Beagul/Bulldog mix. (We call Ty "beebs" as a nickname and it sometimes turns into "beeble," so it might be fun to have 2 Beabulls in our house) I should do another posting on the nicknames we call our kids and how they came to be. The nicknames, not the kids.

More babies!!!

No, we're not pregnant again. Just wanted to be clear from the very beginning.

Dan's sister Jane is expecting her first baby, and we are so excited for her and her husband Curtis! They live in California right now, so we're bummed we're not going to experience all the firsts with them. But keep emailing me, Jane, and be sure to take those pictures, like Faith does, of your cute little belly popping out each month.

These first pictures of the boys as newborns remind me of all the crazy emotions you have looking at your child for the first time. Excitement, overwhelming love, and also a bit of fear.

Looking back at these pictures, the fear I felt was probably not that I wouldn't be a good mother...it was that they might look like that forever. Don't worry, Jane, they're all a little scary when they first come out!
Slimey Jake...probably trying to guess what kind of car he was going to go home in.

Gooey Ty...not sure about this whole "outside the womb" thing.

From the mouths of babes

People keep telling me I'm going to forget a lot of the crazy things Jake says, and I'm starting to believe it. I had forgotten until a few weeks ago that for months he called milk "nun" (one of his first words.) He is saying so many words correctly that it makes it that much funnier when he mispronounces words, so I've got to get them written down before they're lost in time. Here are some of my favorites:

That bwankie keeps me yohm (warm)
Mommy works at the hos-uh-pull
I go potty on the toh-toht, then mommy wipes my bahbahn (bottom)
baa-bwees (batteries)

Moving on to some of his favorite foods:
Nohgle bar (granola bar) which used to be "bee-a-bah"
So-wul (cereal)
McDon-dawnts, also sometimes called "McDarnits" which always makes me laugh

And after eating so much food, it's time for:
Ek-er-cise, ek-er-cise (yells it as he's doing jumping jacks)

And when we're out of food we go to:
Maw-mawt (Walmart) or
Fred Meh-mo

As you can tell, life for a two and a half year old boy pretty much revolves around food and the toh-toht. Probably not going to change any time soon, either.

Wedding weekend

Once again, it has been too long since I've posted, but it's not because I'm a slacker it's because I've been SOOOO busy with wedding plans. Yes, Dan and I have finally decided to...just kidding. Our wedding was official, I did remember to send in the license almost 6 years ago, don't worry.

My childhood best friend Heather got married on Sunday night to a wonderful man, and I couldn't be happier for them. But the weeks ahead of the wedding were crazy, and I'm so glad (for everybody) that it's over and most of all that it turned out so beautifully!!

I had a blast with the other bridesmaids, most of whom I don't get to see very often. There were 6 of us...her two sisters Joy and Karen, me, and then Melissa, Melissa, and Alissa. Gotta love those lissa's.

Now Heather and Steve are enjoying a cruise to the Bahamas, and I'm enjoying wiping peanut butter off my couch and snot off my kids. Life is officially back to normal.

Boys, boys, boys...and more boys!

Congrats to sister Karina and Dan Franklin who just found out yesterday that they're having a boy! She's due August 31, and though there is still no pink in the Alcorn grandbaby collection, we are SO excited for you guys!! Jake and Ty were wrestling yesterday (Ty is holding his own very well) and I was so thankful for the blessing of brothers. With an older brother and 2 older boy cuzes, this kid has no choice but to be tough. Plus, you won't have to blow your budget on clothes!!

Here's a recent pic of the 3 boys with "Pops" (Jake's newest favorite word).

Walking and falling

Ty is walking! He took his first steps weeks ago, but now he's REALLY walking. I should have posted this last week when I took the video, because he has already drastically improved. Every day he spends more time on his feet. He looks a lot less like Frankenstein, though he still waddles and holds his hands out for balance.

It is much more obvious now how many toys are constantly on the floor. Our living room is an ever changing obstacle course. Learning to walk does create more independence...but also more bruises. It's amazing how quickly a bruise can heal, but more amazing how quickly another one can appear!!

12 months...

...the age of discovering how food makes it to your mouth.

1 year old Jake

1 year old Ty

Mmmm...peas

Well, if it's not one thing, it's another. I think Ty's ear infection is gone, but last Wednesday he started to break out in a rash from his 1 year shots. His doctor said this may happen because they added a chicken pox vaccine to some of the usual ones, and kids have been having "minor" rashes. Um yeah. Minor is not quite the right word. In fact, it's not minor, it's MAJOR. It was the worst on Saturday and I'm not exaggerating when I say he looked like a freak. I mean scary. His entire little face was polka dotted bright red, and the rash was head to toe UGLY. It was sad. Since I am an ER nurse and I know all...I called the doctor. I knew it was a reaction to the shots, not hives or anything dramatic like meningitis, but he just looked so darn freakish I needed to know if there was anything I could do to help him. Pretty much, no.

All that to say he's been a little needy and grumpy the last few days, but it's looking better. He slept for over 4 hours yesterday at nap time. Yes, auntie Jane, I did check on him to be sure he was breathing :)

He hasn't been wanting to eat, so I was really happy the other day when I put some peas on his high chair tray, and he was just mowing them down. I was making dinner and every time I turned around his tray was empty. I'd put more on there, thinking "yeah, he's finally got his appetite back." This is what I found when I got him down. He may not have looked pretty, but he was clever.



Nice try, dude. He ended up eating them all.

Spring break!

Happy spring break everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Ty's been sick with an ear infection, and life has just been really busy. And I didn't have anything exciting to say. ANYWAY.

Dan was so excited about spring break when he got home on Friday that he decided to spread the joy and have a slumber party with Jake. They made a "bwankie foht" (blanket fort) in the living room and had some great male bonding. I was surprised it lasted all night, but they were both still snoring when Ty got me up at 7:30.

Oh, another big moment in the life of our 2 1/2 year old. His first daddy haircut. Not a haircut like dad's, but a haircut given by dad. The excitement of spring break made daddy eager to do something drastic. So he buzzed. We're talking as close to completly bald as you can get. I was horrified half way through the process, convinced we had ruined our handsome little boy, but I have to say that once it was finished he actually looked pretty cute. He's such a dude. He said "woooo" and laughed when we put him in front of the mirror. He'll say "I like my hair, Mommy" and then the next minute he'll rub his bald head and say "where's my hair go? Want my hair back pwease."

It'll be back soon. Until then, those long dark curly eyelashes look even better.

Tyler Daniel

Happy birthday to my sweet baby! I can't believe it's been a year since you were living inside me, seemingly never going to come out! I think back to the time I asked myself if I could love another baby as much as I love your brother, and then I remember the tears that overwhelmed me the second your gooey little newborn body was placed in my arms right after you were born...I can't imagine my life without you. You have put us through some rough nights, and some delightful days. You've cried, and you've laughed (and we've cried and laughed.) I've been exhausted and energized by you. But through the good and the bad, you have truly been a gift from God that we love more deeply than we ever could have known. We can't wait to see the plans God has for you, and yet I am really enjoying where He has you now...your chubby little arms wrapped around your mommy's neck and your head resting on my shoulder.

Thank you God for our beautiful baby. Protect him, guide him, and never let him forget how much he is loved.

Ok, tears are dried.

We had a great party today, thanks so much to everybody who could come! It was so fun to see friends and family and eat lots of great food (including the cupcake cake that was supposed to be a basketball that ended up looking more like a football, but that's alright, you can tell that Ty got over it.)



It takes a lot of work eating that much frosting. Exhausting, but good times.

PARTY!!!

A reminder to some, and an open invitation to all: Ty's 1st birthday is this Saturday, March 10, and we would love you to come celebrate it with us at John and Ann Stump's house from 10:30am to noon. (Email me at dastump@verizon.net for directions if you need them.) We'd love to see you and have you share this special day with us!!

Picture happy

We're housesitting for my parents this weekend, so I broke in to my dad's computer in order to share with you, dear reader, the best recent pictures of my boys. Poppy Ha-corn loves to take pictures, especially of his grandkids, and who can blame him? I was so excited to go through his pictures to pick out some of my favorites! It was a grand idea, and then I started the search. Though many of his pictures are great, the key word here is MANY. I have to say that after scrolling through 93570210 pictures (because "what's the down-side?" of that many pictures) I can't even tell anymore which ones are my kids, much less which pictures are the BEST. Anyway, I'm pretty sure these pictures are good, and that they are indeed my kids. I've been so bad at using my camera lately, so I'm glad someone is taking the time to capture some great childhood moments. Thanks, Poppy.



Besides being the highlight of Jake's young life, this is a stroller that you can either push, or pull behind a bike. Good buy, Poppy.



This is a classic capturing the difference in the personalities of my boys. Jake is the fun-loving, mischevious showboat, and Ty is my thoughtful one, constantly pondering the mysteries of life (right now it's "when's dinner?")



Hands-free phones are a must for busy 2 1/2 year olds these days. How else would they get anything done?



One of my favorites. The tweaked hair is a Ty special, and those eyes... I love you too, baby.

Two questions to ponder...

#1. Why is it that no matter how many hundreds of toys are on the floor, the most fun thing in the house will always be the no-no corner?
And #2: Why is it that fat rolls are only cute on little kids? Seems unfair, don't you think?

P.S. Someone's going to be walking soon!

Write me a song, Jake

Jake has been learning to sing lots of songs, and he's loving it. Those of you who watched the Jesus Loves Me video from a few weeks ago saw the very early, unpolished rendition. He's watched American Idol ("watch Americah Idoh, mommy, next on FOX") and he's heard Simon Cowell talk about making the song your own. So he's really beginning to put his own spin on various songs. For example:

After watching Veggie Tales: "yes, Larry loves me, yes Larry loves me...the Bible tells me so."

After being praised for going on the potty: "red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little poops of the world! YEAH POOP!!"

We have a future lyricist on our hands, don't you think?

And just for the record, it may not be anywhere in the Bible, but I'm sure Jesus would agree not to descriminate against any poops, anywhere in the world.

Deception

Some of you are reading this entry just because of its title. You're thinking, what kind of Deception is she going to share with the world? Is she going to finally be upfront about the Deception keeping her from posting on this blog? Yes I am. I have to be really honest. I haven't been posting because every spare second for the last week and a half has been spent on Deception. If you're irritated about me continually capitalizing the word Deception, don't be. It's not just because I want to be dramatic...though I guess I am already doing that. It's because I'm talking about...


Though this book is not available in stores until April 2007, because I have a few connections with the author, I was able to get my hands on it early. Wow, way to go Dad. It was an amazing read. For those of you who like a good novel, as I do, you are absolutely going to LOVE it. And for those of you, like my husband, who prefer non-fiction, Dan will attest to the fact that this book is definitely going to be worth your time. It is a complex murder mystery that has you hooked from the very beginning and guessing until the very end. (That sounded like an official book review, didn't it?) And of course there is a lot of spiritual emphasis that gets you thinking, whether you are not a believer in God, or have been for 60 years.

For those of you who have read some of my Dad's previous books, Deception is a spin-off on his first two novels Deadline and Dominion. The main character of this book had small parts in the other books. Here's a little taste of what you're in for, taken from the jacket of the book:

"Homicide detective Ollie Chandler has seen it all. Done more than he cares to admit. But when he's called to investigate the murder of a Portland State University professor, he finds himself going places he's never gone before. Places he never wanted to go."

And let me just add this endorsement by my Dad's good friend (seriously) Chuck Norris, because if Chuck likes it, you'd better like it too :)

"I've just finished reading Randy Alcorn's new novel. Deception is the same high quality as Randy's related novels Deadline and Dominion. All three are page-turners...Randy is a gifted writer. I strongly recommend that you read his books." Or I will roundhouse kick you in the face.

Ok, so I added that last part, but I'm sure he was thinking it.

I'm proud of you, Dad. You truly have a gift.

Morning coffee

Our little family (oh, minus Dan "coffee is the devil" Stump) is sure enjoying the new drive-thru Starbucks in Wood Village. Thanks to everybody who got me gift-certificates for Christmas, because it's made me feel a little less guilty going there so much!! My favorite is a vanilla latte, but Jake prefers the chocolate in a good mocha, and Ty just absolutely won't stand for anything but a decaf non-fat no foam extra whip sugar free caramel macchiato.

Dan's Turn

Since my wife has procrastinated on bragging about my new world record I thought I should let the world know that there is a new pop-a-shot champion. The old Giuness World Record was 139 points and about 2 months ago I threw down a 145. Unfortunately the people at Guiness weren't there to verify but I have plenty of witnesses. The in-laws bought the pop-a-shot about a year ago and some of us guys have been busy honing our skills ever since. Finally all my hard work paid off.

I also had put this Jakey video on here. It is a classic of Jake singing Jesus Loves Me. He even gives us some falsetto at the end.

Finally...a new post

OK, I'm a slacker. But isn't that how New Years resolutions go? You're really good at something at the beginning of January, then you start to forget...ANYWAY. I'll try to be better. But trust me, this story was worth waiting for (like 300 people are checking this blog every day and have been crushed for the last 2 weeks.) Well, for those people who care, this is for you.

Just a quick disclaimer: this story is not for the faint of heart. If you are grossed out easily, you should probably just keep on blog-surfing. For the rest of you, especially parents of little ones, enjoy.

Friday morning I decided to give the boys a bath. Ty's face was crusty after breakfast and he hates it when I scrub him with a washcloth unless he's in the tub chewing on a rubber duckie. And I knew Jake would freak out if the baby was the only one getting to enjoy the new Elmo bubble bath. So I fill the tub and watch as my two little angels play together. Well, really it is more like my two rough-housing boys fighting over the best bath toy, but they are really being quite good.

It is time to be done, and I realize I need to take Ty out of the tub first because I can leave Jake in there by himself as long as I can still hear him jabbering away about who has what car and what color it is. So I have Ty on the changing table, and I've just put lotion all over his naked body and I hear Jake say "uh oh, Mommy." Some of you are realizing, like I did at that point, the words "uh oh, Mommy" from a potty-training 2 1/2 year old can only mean one thing. Disaster. Sure enough, I go into the bathroom to find Jake huddled in the corner of the bathtub with poop floating all around him. Here's where some of you should stop reading because this is only the beginning. I'll assume you can all figure out what I mean when I say he had evidently eaten too much fruit that morning. I can not just put on a pair of rubber gloves and take care of this.
Before I can figure out the best way to handle this, I realize the baby is still on his changing table, and he's just about ready to stand up and fling himself off, so I run in there and just put him down on the floor without really thinking about the fact that he is still totally naked. Ty was the least of my concerns, right?

I grab Jake by the armpits and put him on the toilet and tell him not to move until I tell him so. Of course he's dripping with nasty water that is now running off his legs, down the toilet and on to the floor. We'll deal with that later. I start to drain the tub water and I am now grateful for the excess fruit consumption, as it all goes down the drain. I turn around to get some cleaner out from under my sink and I see the baby crawling into the bathroom headed directly for the pool of filth around the toilet. I grab him and realize he has pee running down his legs, and I notice that instead of waiting til he was in the bathroom on the already nasty floor, there's a huge spot on my carpet right outside the door. Figures. I move him out of the bathrrom and towel him off and at least I'm relieved that now he really doesn't need a diaper immediately because I can't do it right now. Jake is still freezing and horrifyingly dirty and needs another bath in a clean tub. I pour half a can of Comet into the now empty tub and start scrubbing. Oh, it's not over.

I am just about to rinse out the tub when I feel a hand on my leg. It's the baby, pulling himself up on my leg, then standing next to the bathtub. I put down my scrub brush and am about to take him out again and shut the door this time, when his face turns red and I realize Jake isn't the only one who had eaten too much fruit. I have poop all over the bottom of my pants, it's running down Ty's legs and into a pile on the bathmat. Unbelievable. I knew I was eventually going to laugh at this, but not soon. It's still not over.

I can't let go of Ty because he'll just crawl around spreading more poop all over the bathroom, and the bathtub is still filled with cleanser so I can't just drop him in there without rinsing it out first. I turned the water on, but it wasn't reaching the back of the tub and I only had one hand because the other was holding on to Ty. Our shower head is one of those that you can take off and move wherever you want it, so I grabbed that with my free hand and turned the shower on. Well, Ty started to slip out of my grasp, so I dropped the nozzle to make sure his head wouldn't hit the floor. Let me remind you that the shower is still on. Water is spraying everywhere, mostly in my face as I tried to get it back under control. I finally put a very slippery Ty in the tub and just hosed him off, then was able to get Jake back in there and start the whole process over again.

It was naptime before I dared to open the bathroom door again to clean it.