pink sparkly hearts

last saturday pete and I got to go on a real date.  his mom was in town and we took a few afternoon hours to ourselves...it was really nice to be together.  we went to the mall so that pete could get his new glasses looked at, and I happened to make a stop at claire's.  because I am secretly still 15 and like to go look at all those earrings and glittered hair accessories.  I bought some little metal flower ear bobs that came in about 10 different colors.

when we got home eden was enamored with my purchase.  she wanted to wear those "beautiful earrings" like mommy does.  I told her she had to have holes in her ears and it would feel like a shot, and that she would cry.  she said she wouldn't cry...and that she wanted holes like mommy.  she'd said this before, but I just dismissed it like the other times.  the next morning she kept saying the same thing.  she wouldn't cry...she wanted to wear mommy's earrings.  so, to walmart we went.  I was prepared for her to see the little ear hole making guns and turn the other way.  but she didn't!  they put little dots on her ears, two walmart ladies stood on either side of her, and she kept smiling. until...they fired.  then the tears flowed.

thankfully, they were short lived.  and her beautiful pink sparkly heart earrings (that she picked out) look so sweet in her little ears.  I had to wait until I was a lot older to get my ears pierced.  it was a family rule.  a right of passage into grown-up girlhood.  I guess I have decided that my girls can get them done whenever they ask and are willing to go through with it.  in el paso little girls get their ears pierced right after they leave the birth canal.  I think it is all just cultural. 

and in case you were wondering.  I won't just let her get a tattoo whenever she asks.  I got one when I was 17 and am going to advise all of my kids to wait a few years after that to decide on permanent inkage.  I won't let her do a lot of things whenever she asks.  but earrings, I'm cool with.

wooden clothespins

"we should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry" --E. B. White

I tore that quote out of a real simple magazine, and put it up in my kitchen. I don't agree with it completely, but I really really like it.  we should do what gives us joy, but we should also bring joy to others, and serve, and a lot of other things.

we used to have a grape vine at the house I grew up in on milford church road.  but I remember liking to pick honeysuckle better than picking grapes.  and sorting laundry was NEVER my favorite.  however, the smell of fresh laundry dried on the line, or watching my mom hang it with wooden clothespins in her mouth in the big backyard...those memories definitely bring me joy.  

since I started cloth diapering charlotte we recently put up a small clothesline.  and it makes me happy every time I see it.  I love hanging her diapers up to dry in the sunshine.  we have had some beautiful weather and I've taken advantage of it as often as I can.  swinging, sliding, drying diapers, and just being barefoot in the yard bring me joy. 

you never forget your first

pigtails

K.I.T.

since we live far away from both of our families that we love SO much, technology is our best friend when it comes to keeping in touch with them.  cell phones and text pics are a blessed thing.  I've never counted, but I am sure my sister sarah and I send an average of 4,000 texts per hour.  how else could I see my nephew Jackson's latest firetruck, or what he is having for lunch?
texts and chats are great, but our most favorite way to talk to the fam of all is SKYPE!
we skype the grandparents, aunts, uncles, best friends in england...even our cousin amy that lives a few miles down the road.  I know I am a big dork for this, but it just amazes me that you can just open the computer and call someone and see them moving around in chilly england when you are in the sun city of the ELP.  yesterday, eden and her cousin Jackson danced around together in their living rooms to apple bottom jeans.  aunt sarah chatted with charlotte as she chewed on a plastic black and decker hammer. mimi watched charlotte play with lightning mcqueen, and got to see eden's new wind-up seal (that she calls a fish).
it is just so nice to have our families and friends voices in our homes even though they are hundreds and thousands of miles away in other states and countries.
thanks skype inventors for the free gift of keeping us all together.

 

what's up aunt sarah?!

cousin time

ahhh, Jackson, so much older and wiser. (they are 15 days apart)

oh. and p.s. my oldest sister is due to give birth to my new nephew/niece in a few days and my dad is going to skype me in the hospital so I can see him/her just after being born!  yahoo!

free reads

yesterday I took my beauties to the library.  the esperanza acosta moreno regional branch library. can you tell we live in el paso?  it is about half a mile from our house and a little bit of heaven on the east side.  eden and I used to go almost every day before charlotte was born.  we passed by it and the giant perfect playground behind on our morning walk.  the weather is just now starting to be magnificent for walking again so it's time to begin our frequenting.  this library is only a few years old and is SO so so cool.  it has this neato swirly roof that is red and one of the walls is bright yellow.  certainly doesn't look like the libraries that I grew up visiting.  eden has always been obsessed with reading and books, so it is one of her favorite places to be.  she just had a new book shelf made for her by papa because her little red one could no longer house her growing libary.

this trip she found two free bookmarks and you would have thought they were made of gold.  she could not believe that she could keep them and use them in her books.  she sat in a big swivel chair with her huge hard back olivia book and used her bookmark on each page.  I don't think she understood it's purpose at all, but it sure was cute watching her use it.  charlotte crawled around pulling books off of shelves and drooling, and I followed behind replacing them. 

sometimes I get teary just taking in moments like that.  well, a lot of times.  it is just hard for me to understand why God would let me mother these two girls and teach them things and take them to libraries.  seems like a gift that should be reserved for someone far more worthy than I could ever be.  but then...none of us are worthy of his love or gifts or goodness.

baffling.

on a much lighter note.  eden LOVES where's waldo.  isn't that hilarity?  pete's parents got her into finding that striped sweatered guy while we were visiting GA over Christmas. so, of course we had to check out a where's waldo that I found.

this is what charlotte does while we read at home...if she isn't trying to tear the pages...

why, yes that is a snow globe.  my oldest cried tears of anguish at the mention of me boxing it up with the Christmas decor.  so now, we get to hear jingle bells year round.

  

cannot even wait to hear big sister reading to this little sister one sweet day.

here's to free books, and library cards, and reading with your children.

the princess bride

 

and...

her little sister

thirty-one

happy birthday to peter thomas.
who loves Jesus, hot wings, gadgets, coffee, transformers, mexico, steak, tools, sunflower seeds, toms, casas por cristo, his family, cakes from vista market, lightnin' mcqueen, target, twix, japanese steak houses, willie nelson, the book "pigs love potatoes", the georgia bulldogs, his mom's chocolate pie, sweet tea, dwight schrute, jack bauer, pulling weeds, raisin cream pies, and loofas.

eden adeline,
charlotte mae,
and for some reason,
me.

i love you and look forward to this thirty-first year of your life on planet earth.  and the next thirty-one.

charlotte's fanny

 

so, a few weeks ago I decided to go cloth.  cloth diapering, that is.  I had always wanted to cover eden's booty in cloth, but used the excuse that I was in nursing school, and didn't have time for that hoo hah.  and then I got freaked out by it again when we were pregnant with charlotte.  thinking about newborn squirty breast milk poo and the many thousands of diaper changes.  but a few weeks ago I took the plunge.

and my friends.

it is easy!  it isn't a big deal!  it isn't gross!  and I LOVE THEM.

my cousin (3rd or 4th) named amy has been using them on her little birthday boy jonas for awhile now.  after seeing his cute little bottom in them, and watching her be a real cloth diaper mom I realized it can't be that horrible.  she helped me figure out the cloth diaper lingo, and gave me her opinions on the different types (she'd tried a bunch).  I bought two different kinds and ended up loving one called bumgenius all in one organic something or other.  I don't care that they are organic, I just like the snaps and that the diaper is one big thing...no inserts.  although I hear some insert diapers are super.

I couldn't help but buy 2 that are pink.  they are just so stinking cute.  and for reals so much easier than you'd think.  gone are the days of our mothers pins and plastic diaper covers.  and it only adds a load of laundry a day.

so, three cheers for cloth diapers.  I am a fan for life.  I get excited about washing them and folding them, and putting them on charlotte's pudgy bum.  and about my new shower sprayer (for the poo) .  isn't that embarrassing?  and not throwing diapers into the trash, saving cash flow, and it is easy on the sweet baby cheeks.

in one hour

 

this is what happened today between the hours of 11am and 12pm.  no, I am not trying to be Jack Bauer.  I was just laughing about it and decided to blog it up.
before I begin you should know that I watch a little boy named Jax 3 days a week.  8am-3:30pm.  his parents are missionaries with casas and his mom works 3 days a week in the office.  he has juvenile diabetes and was diagnosed at 18 months.  he's 2 1/2 now.  to keep his little body working right he requires blood glucose monitoring and insulin shots multiples times a day.  the sweet guy hardly even notices a prick or poke.  so, now you know a bit about jax, and I will proceed.

pete called and needed something for our taxes.  it was in a safe that is locked in a closet.  charlotte woke up, and I changed her.  jax pooped so I changed him.  i got some toys to entertain charlotte while I tried to open the bleepity bleep safe...couldn't get it to budge.  pete called and needed the info, I got mad and said something like how about HE tries to entertain 3 kids and open a safe and blah blah blah.  he gets mad, I hang up on him.  eden and jax bring 85 toys into the room while I am in the closet working on the safe.  charlotte starts chewing on a my little pony's mane and gets upset because purple fake hair has encompassed her mouth.  I give up on the safe.  call pete back.  cry because I can't just drop everything to open a safe and he will just never understand and I need to chop the onions for the crock pot chili.  lencho vomits grass behind the couch.  charlotte somehow gets ahold of eden's hot pink lip gloss and squeezes it on the the carpet. I try try try really hard to get it up with good old spot shot.  (if you have a pet or small child....you NEED spot shot in your life).

i check jax's blood sugar. pete calls and we decide to be friends again.  get lunch ready, inject insulin, yell at eden because she accidentally pushed charlotte over and made her hit her head on the green coffee table.  I shove some left over annie's organic mac and cheese into my mouth that I reheated for eden's lunch.  apologize to eden for yelling at her.  and she says...

it's ok mom, sometimes people just have to get mad.

and that is what made me laugh and love her all the more and write this all out.

and there you have it people.  me.  I really don't cry at silly things every day.  and I try really hard not to yell at small children when they accidentally harm their younger sibling.  but.  sometimes I do. sometimes I am hungry or tired or just selfish and the little really not important things get to me.  thank goodness for grace, food, and perspective.

don't know why

i








I don't know why....I didn't blog.
thanks norah jones.

I really don't know why I fell off the blogger wagon these last few months. I just enjoy reading other people's blogs and not updating my own. that's all.

so. I suppose I won't try and recreate the last 4 months or so. we'll just start with what has happened as of late. my most fave event in recent dockery world was pete's 200th build with our ministry, casas por cristo. pete has been working at casas in some form for the last 10 years. 1/3 of his life. and this Friday he nailed up the plaque on his 200th home. to God be the glory great things he has done (sung with good harmony).

my parents and in-laws came down (or over) for the build. our girls also joined in...it was charlotte's first spend the night trip to mexico. she got to use her new passport and learn how to hammer with daddy. she was also passed around to many different sweet mexican ladies and kids. our blue eyed girls are quite the celebrities in the land where almost everyone has brown.
we had a little hot dog fiesta after the dedication and a good crowd from the neighborhood showed up to chow down. we didn't want to bring honor or glory to pete through any of this...we just wanted to have a little party to mark this pretty grand number of homes that God has allowed him to build with the help of many thousands of volunteers. we are so grateful to be a part of casas and showing people that God does indeed care for them and love them, and so do His people.
the dockery family hearts juarez, mexico. forever. we weren't scared. we didn't feel threatened. and we want our girls growing up serving in this city that is currently plagued by a bloody drug war. we pray that soon and very soon it will all be over. but there really isn't anything that would stop us from continuing to build homes for people and bring hope and love and Jesus. God doesn't call us to be safe. or comfortable.

so. there is the beginning of what I hope is a more current update-age of blogdom.
the girls are great. charlotte is now 7 months old. and I have no idea how that happened. she is seriously the smiliest, most happy baby I've ever known. eden is a pretty good big sister. sometimes a little rough with charlie girl, but mostly sweet. they take baths together every night, and we have to make them get out when the water is cold...they are having such a fun splashy time. eden is currently obsessed with playing pretend and I am almost always king triton, ariel, or some other disney princess character. the mean queen from snow white is another favorite character I portray.

I absolutely love being a registered nurse that stays at home raising her daughters. and I couldn't be more grateful.

p.s. sorry the pictures are first. I always get confused on how to fix that.

birthdays

Ella Grace Broach...minutes old

Daddy gets to know Ella

Eden and her buddies collecting pinata candy

Blowing out the candles for the third time.
(Pete decorated that mermaid cake!)

on october 19th eden a. dockery turned three. i would have preferred her to stay 2...but I suppose I really don't have a say in matters of time and aging. we were flying home from Hawaii on her actual birthday, so we had chick-fil-a that night and celebrated with ice cream and playing on the slide. we had a big el paso style party last saturday with a bunch of friends and family. my parents were able to fly out for the occasion, and we had tons o' fun. we grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers, crock potted homemade charro beans, and pete wowed the crowd with his cake decorating abilities. the kiddies jumped in a bounce house (jumping balloon, whatever you want to call it), and then hit a princess pinata until candy filled the grass. it was a crazy, wonderful night. eden was overwhelmed with gifts and love and we were incredibly grateful.

among the guests were our friends brandon and emily broach. sweet emmi had to sit down most of the time because she was so very pregnant with little ella grace. ella was due a week and a half from then. I was thinking she'd be late. little did we know that two days later she'd be perfect and beautiful in her mother's arms. in the early hours of october 26th emily's water broke. she texted me...but my phone was on vibrate. I got the message around 7am, talked to emily and brandon...figured I'd have awhile to find someone to watch my girls and the little boy that I keep every morning. first babies, they usually come slowly. around 9am emily was dilated to 7cm! whoa baby. I threw on clothing, said goodbye to my parents, strapped children into their carseats, dropped them off with sweet friends...and broke all speed limits getting to the hospital. emily was already pushing when I got into the room (YES they let me witness the birth of their firstborn child!). A few pushes later, at 10:54 a.m., a gorgeous baby girl was screaming and bringing air into her lungs. It was a moment I will never forget as long as I live. It gives me chills just typing it all out. I was snapping pictures like a crazy woman...watching this new family of three.

throughout ella's birth and first minutes of life I thought about the birth of my own beautiful daughters. the warmth of a baby freshly born. the excitement and shock of becoming a parent. the incredible love that instantly invades your soul, and keeps growing and growing and growing. how beautiful the gift of children truly is. how I will never be able to thank God enough for letting me birth and mother Eden and Charlotte.

So. happy birthday to Eden Adeline. my spectacular firstborn. you are such joy. I cherish you.

and happy birthday to Ella Grace. I am so honored that I was able to be present the moment you came into God's great earth. I will love you forever.

10 things I love about Maui...in random order

1. laying charlotte in the sand...nudey.

2. going on a real date with this guy

3. listening to charlotte talk to papa. our sweeties live 1500 miles from any grandparent.

4. the view outside our condo. seriously?

5. watching my family play in the sand

6. how the air smelled like these white flowers

7. going to a real luau! hula girls... singing...dancing...fire throwers...buffet!

8. the way eden's hair curled up in ringlets

9. hula pie. one of the most delicious desserts of my life.

macadamia nut ice cream piled high on a chocolate cookie crust, topped with fudge, whipped cream, and more macadamia nuts. as big as my head.

10. macadamia nut and pineapple everything. coffee, smoothies, syrup, pancakes, you name it. heavenly.

i am so grateful we were given the gift of this trip. it has been refreshing, relaxing, and too beautiful to describe.

the BEST playdoh

I got this homemade playdoh recipe from my sister a few months ago. I must must must share the recipe because it is indeed the BEST playdoh EVER. I made some weeks...months ago, and it is still soft and moist and wonderful! way better than store bought...and it's just fun to make it with your kids. so here's the recipe:

1 cup flour
1 cup boiling water
2 tbsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup salt
1 tbsp. oil

  Food coloring

just mix all that together and then add the food coloring when it looks and feels like playdoh. 
I just keep ours in ziplock freezer baggies. 
have fun.

Bible reading with Eden

after eden and I ate scrambled eggs for lunch, she brought me one of her bibles to read to her. it's a children's one with pictures and abbreviated stories...but more grown-up than a board book one. it has 300 or so thin, pretty pages.

so....we begin in Genesis. she is fascinated that adam and eve are in the garden of eden. we've told her this before, but today it seems to really click. her eyes twinkle and she says "like me! dockery! I'm EDEN dockery! and God loves dockery! can you believe it, mom?!" yes, eden, I can.

we read that God made all the animals and she reaffirms her love of aquariums. and going to them with Jackson (her cousin).

we keep going and she asks what is happening on each page.

we get to pharoah and he is illustrated as a bald guy....she asks "mom, is that charlie brown?"

we see the plagued nile river turned bloody...she shouts "what BEAUTIFUL red water!"

on to the arc of the covenant..."is that baby Jesus in there?"

daniel with the lions, mean kings, moses in the basket. she just can't get enough of the stories.

then we hit the new testament. she is thrilled, as always, to see baby Jesus amongst the cows and lone donkey. she says "there was nobody at their church that day". well, sort of, eden.

Jesus gets baptized and "the fishies were watching". I bet they were.

then He eats the last supper with His friends. I show her the cross and He's hanging on it. He died so we could go to heaven. she says she misses Him and wishes He could come to her house. I told her He is always with us and He's coming back to get us. we look at the picture of Him in the sun shiney clouds. she says she's going to hug Him and that would make Him happy.

I have no doubt it would thrill Him.

then she learns we are supposed to tell other people this story.

my greatest prayer is that she does. and that I don't screw up trying to teach her about Him.

I want to raise little world changers. and by God's grace and love, I'm gonna.

seriously embarrassing to me...

I had to post this so that my family could see charlotte being so cute and trying to sing/talk while having the hiccups. I sound so ridiculous that I can't even handle it. but, it's just mom voice. so I'll get over it.

a word from charlotte...or maybe just a pretty noise

our little talker...ready for halloween in her glow in the dark skeleton onesie (thanks walmart).

sweet moriah

hey everyone!

we have some very sweet friends that have a little girl named moriah. she was born just days after charlotte (and was also an upside down breech baby!). on thursday, september 24th, she will be having surgery to repair two holes in her heart. just wanted to ask you blog readers to please pray for her and the winchell family. their blog is called team winchell and is on my blog list over here ---->.

we love you moriah pearl winchell!

sorry, but...

...they are just so durn cute.

lovingly with adoration and splendor

The last few days have been rough. But, that isn’t at all surprising, because I knew today was coming. September 3rd. I try so hard to focus on good things, remember his voice and smile, and not that horrible night. But…most times that just doesn’t work. I have to allow myself to remember the worst…get down into the dark times, and then emerge into my memory of the sweet ones. And dream of life now and what is to come.
Seven years ago, today, I lost my first love. Part of my heart and being. To a drunk driver. A drunk and high driver, rather…who was unable to realize he was driving down the wrong side of the road.
I was supposed to be with Doug that night, but decided to stay home and study greek. Greek, for crying out loud. And for a long while after his death, I wished that I had been in that car, because the grief of staying here in this life without him seemed too great to bear.
But the thing is…I wasn’t with him. He was taken. I am still here. And while I don’t still kiss his picture every night before bed, or sleep with his shirt, or smell his bottle of cologne…I miss that tall, brown-eyed boy every day. The strangeness of his death and absence never goes away.
So much has happened in seven years.
I have…
sat in Greenwich cemetery for hours, felt alone, cried, questioned my God, loved my God, read, written, wondered, prayed, been angry, traveled, learned some French, painted, made new friends, cherished my old friends, taken off a ring, fallen in love again, put on another ring, married that love in the pasture, become a Texan, worked in Mexico, become a nurse, stared into the eyes of my children.

How his life and death have molded my life is immeasurable. How fresh the memories of his crooked bottom teeth, long, messy hair, tall frame, laughter, and beautiful mind are in my soul. For that I could not be more thankful. Every now and then I let myself watch a movie of him moving around and talking just to see him.
I don’t have much more figured out about life than I did seven years ago. I still don’t know why --and have accepted the fact that I won’t while I am here on earth.
What ultimately gets me out of the pits of the anniversary of Doug’s earthly death is Jesus. Because of Him, Doug isn’t dead. Seriously. He isn’t. and I know that better than anything. oh what a day it will be when I see them both together…Jesus and Doug that is. When I join them. I get chills just typing that.

Douglas Michael Shippy, a life lived fully, to the hilt, and in this sin soaked world a life cut short. Our best friend, our beloved.
To a life lived with brilliance, humor, and clever wit.
To every companionable silence, every insightful conversation, to an almost irrepressible mirth.
To a voracious appetite for good books, swiss cake rolls, and grand ambitions.
To an uncompromising loyalty to the people he claimed as his own.
To an unpretentious faith.
Redeem us restore us, ransom us all, until we come again into a knowledge of him not through this glass darkly, but face to face
(written by jenny martin)

If I weren’t breastfeeding I’d smoke a cheap cigar for you tonight, my douglas. Perhaps I’ll settle for pineapple and pepperoni pizza…another one of your faves. Here’s to you. Here’s to life. Life with no death.

Lovingly with adoration and splendor,

abigail

growing and gains

yesterday, eden and I took charlotte to the pediatrician for vaccinations and a little check-up. turns out our little 6lb 11oz, 19 1/2 inch wonder has grown quite a bit. she now weighs 10lbs 6oz and is 21 1/2 inches long! whoa baby. chub-arific! the doctor said that she looked perfect and to keep doing what we're doing. eden watched intently as he checked her out...she sat right next to her on the table and chatted it up with the doctor. we only had one cry fest...while charlotte was screaming and getting shots, eden fell off of a chair and landed on her head. I was holding charlotte's arms so they wouldn't be in the nurse's way, so I had to wait to scoop them both up in my arms. some breast milk for charlotte and a tinkerbell sticker for eden, and they were both good as new. one more adventure in mothering. I just adore those two girls.

in other news...pumpkin spice lattes are back at starbucks. hallelujah. amen.