Grandpa and Abuelita are here!

Hooray! Lucas' Dad and Maria (a.k.a Grandpa and Abuelita) are here visiting from California this week! Here are a few pics to show you what we've been up to:

Snuggling and playing with Grandpa.

Chaney fixing stuff at our house. He's awesome.

Cooking with Abuelita!

Ready for a fun day out!

Merry Go Round! What fun!

Like father, like son.

More to come! We're having a great time!

My New Favorite Photos

Have you ever taken a photo and immediately know that you will treasure it forever? I found Mom and Maggie like this tonight, reading together by lamplight:

The Minnie Mouse Birthday Brunch

The Minnie Mouse Birthday Brunch was a smashing success. What a great time! We had perfect weather, good friends, a house full of laughing children, and yummy Minnie Mouse pancakes to decorate!

The birthday girl gets ready to party!

Aunt Brandy and Susan help set up. We loved our balloons from The Balloon Closet!

Welcome, friends!

Max is proud of how he decorated his pancake!

Proud mommy with the birthday girl.

Opening special gifts.

"Thank you, Grandmama."

Checking out the new toys.

Snuggles with Grandmama and Grandpapa.

Thanks to everyone who helped make Maggie's party so special!

Maggie's Birthday

We've been busy with lots of little girl birthday celebrating around here! Here's how we spent our Friday, Maggie's actual birthday:

Maggie started the day by getting a special gift from her daddy: A little Mermaid doll that she absolutely loved!

Then she went to the park with her brother.

We took time to stop and smell the flowers. :-)

A little stop at Jolly Roger's Sweet Shoppe, where Maggie got to choose any candy she wanted.

Not surprisingly, she chose chocolate kisses, or "Chocs" as she calls them.

We went to see Grandmama.....

..... who let Maggie borrow a very girly pink feather boa for her birthday.

It's fun to be a girl!

She got to go play with her cousin Susan while I worked on getting ready for Saturday's party.

And we ended the day at Maggie's favorite place to eat: Chick-Fil-A.... or as Maggie calls it: "Chick-il- YAY!!!"

Happy Birthday, Maggie Mae!

Happy 2nd Birthday, baby girl! We love you so much!

Introducing: Conversations between Max and Maggie!

Well, friends, we have entered a new phase in our family's life. Max and Maggie now regularly carry on extensive conversations just between the two of them. It's fascinating (at least for their mom!). Here's the first real conversation I witnessed between them. I was driving and the two of them were riding in the back in their car seats.

Max: Hey, Maggie, say "fireman."

Maggie: (whispering) Fah-man.

Max: No, Maggie. Say it louder so I can hear.

Maggie: Louder, I hear.

Max: NO! Say, "FIREMAN!"

Maggie: (whispering) Fah-man.

Max: NO, MAGGIE! SAY IT LOUDER SO I CAN HEAR!

Maggie: Louder, I hear.

Max: [Loud Sigh].

A Strange Thing Happened Today

This is it:

In almost four years of parenting, I don't think I've ever seen one of my children lay down in the middle of the floor and fall fast asleep. It was only about 15 minutes before naptime, so I just moved her to her bed, where she slept soundly for the next 2+ hours.

She woke up with a fever.

Aha. Mystery solved. So we had to cancel some fun plans for tonight so that we won't expose anyone else to whatever Maggie has. Hopefully it's just a little 24 hour bug that will pass quickly. At least she's getting this over with before her birthday this week!

In the meantime, while Maggie is getting over her little fever, the Roebucks are holing up for the night with the doors and windows open on this gorgeous August evening. We're renting 'Enchanted' for a family movie night and crossing our fingers that no one else will get sick. :-)

We're Baaaa-aaaack!

Okay, folks. The Roebuck family is back online. Since it's a futile endeavor to get the blog caught up on the last month of life, I will instead give you a quick and totally incomprehensive pictorial overview of the last month of our lives:

1. We packed a. whole. lot. of boxes.

2. We watched movers pack our entire life into a semi. Then we said many, many sad goodbyes to our dear friends in Idaho.

3. We moved into our fab new loft in downtown Siloam Springs, which we love, despite the fact....

4. ..... that this is the color of the living room walls.

5. We got settled in. And Max and Maggie find out how great it is to have late night parties every night, now that they share a room.

6. We enjoyed some great Roebuck/Huckaby mania when Erick, Brandy, Susan and Jackson moved to Siloam the same week we did (Erick is now a professor at JBU), and Jacob and Laura got to come for a visit for the weekend!

7. We squeezed in some mega quality time with good friends.

8. And somewhere in the midst of all this, Lucas started his new job as Director of University of Communications at John Brown University! It's been a C-R-A-Z-Y few weeks, but we are thrilled to be back in Siloam Springs and calling it home once again!

Maximus' First Imaginary Friend

We have a new member of the family: Max's imaginary friend "Beedy." Beedy made his grand entrance on Friday when we were on the way to a friend's house for lunch. Max was a little distressed to learn that, no, we would absolutely not be asking our gracious hosts to set another place at the table for Beedy.

Since Beedy's arrival, I have learned that Beedy is a way for Max to express his view of an ideal world. For example, here are some of the things Max has told me about Beedy in the last three days:

• Beedy goes to the doctor, and she is a nice doctor. But there are no shots or medicines.

• Beedy lives next door to Addison and Preston. He gets to see them every day. Oh yeah, and "actually, Uncle Jacob lives next to him, too."

• Beedy goes to the park, and there is a swimming pool right by the park. After he swims, he gets cookies and Kool-Aid for a snack.

I'm wondering how long Beedy will stick around. He's a pretty interesting figment of Max's imagination.... and offers quite an insightful look at what's going on in my child's mind.

Moving to Arkansas!

Big news for the Roebuck family: We are moving from Idaho to Arkansas. In two weeks. :-)

This week, Lucas accepted a job as Director of University Communications for John Brown University. He is really excited about this new challenge, and we are both thrilled to be moving back to the town we consider home: Siloam Springs, Arkansas.... where we met and fell in love, and where we both have family close by.

The next couple weeks will be a whirlwind, so don't worry about us if the blog gets a little "stale" between now and August 1st. We'll be sure to update as often as we get the chance.

Catching Up

Wow..... looks like I need to up my blogging game. I haven't posted in forever!

Life has been a little crazy around here this week.... crazy in a good way. We're having a great summer in Arkansas and enjoying lots of really special time with my mom and dad. We are so thankful to be here.

Check out what we did tonight:

Moooo-oooooo! We dressed up like cows to get free dinner at Chick-Fil-A. It was so fun! We met our friends the Fields there for dinner and had a splendid time. Maggie followed the poor Chick-Fil-A employee dressed in a full cow suit around the restaurant for an hour. Literally. She was OBSESSED with the cow.

The best moment of the night was when Dave and Jen's 4-year-old daughter crawled up on the cow's lap and starting asking him for what she wanted for Christmas. I about died. It was so sweet and funny.

I don't know why, but this picture of Max just cracks me up. I love that boy.

After dinner, we met up with mom and dad at KMart. Grandpapa treated the kids to the kiddie ride out front of the store. Maggie was grinning and giggling the whole time. It was sweet!

Conversations with Maximus

[Our awesome friends Mollie and Gene sent the kids a gift from InsectLore: a set of live catepillars which spun cacoons and then emerged as beautiful butterflies, all right in front of our eyes. The kids LOVED it.)

Lucas: Max, pretty soon we're going to release the butterflies and let them go outside.

Max: (crying) No!! I want to keep them! Don't let them go!

Lucas: If we leave them in the cage, they will die. They need to be free.

Max: (still crying). Okay. We will let them go so they can live. [Pause.] But maybe if we leave them in their house, they will die, but then they will wake up later.

Lucas: No, when things die, they don't wake up. It's like Simon [grandpapa and grandmama's dog]. He died, and he didn't ever come back.

Max: Daddy, are you going to die?

Lucas: Yes, someday I will die. But it won't be for a long time. You will probably grow up and be a man and have kids before I die.

Max: When you die, will you go to heaven?

Lucas: Yes, because of Jesus, I will.