New Year...New Committments

Resolutions seem ridiculous....people say I am going to lose 10 pounds this year then by March have put money down the drain in gym fees and stuffed their bellies with pizza and beer. Seems so cliche to me....but I do believe in the power of writing out goals and working toward something. So this past week while Tim had a couple days off of work we talked about where we would like to see ourselves and our family a year from now.

Here's what we came up with:

As a family:
* Have a family date at least once a month. Playing at the park, picnic, beach, bike trails, zoo, etc.
* Work on making sure we eat as many meals together as possible so we can sit and chat face to face with each other.
* Take 10 mins each night before bed and pick clothing out for the next day, straighten up each "station" we have and go to bed with a house picked up and ready for the next day.
* Get rid of the credit cards, completely plastic debt free.
* Save $3,000 into an emergency fund.
* Be intentional in reaching out and making friendships with our friends stronger.
* Take a family vacation to Disney in December for our 30th birthday week. 

I'd really like to fit back into my pre-baby jeans this year!!!! I have a closet full of clothes that had at one point fit me and would love to wear some of the stuff again. Hopefully in a couple months when this milk monster isn't such a tyrant and is on table food I can get away for chunks of time a few days a week and get into the gym. I know it's going to take time, so I'm being real about wanting to wear my clothes by at least his birthday :)

It's been on my heart to also be incredibly intentional about praying specific things for my man each day, so I've set a reminder on my phone to do just that each day. 

So there.....I wrote it out. Let's see where we're at and what we can check off the list in 363 days!

Halloween 2012

We weren't sure if our littlest dude was going to make his arrival yesterday or not, but we still made sure he felt like the crew and had a "costume"!

(Thanks for the shirt Casie!)


After stopping by Nena & Papa's house to trick or treat we went by church for our first Light the Night event and he boys had a blast!

With a race car driver, real life Prince Charming and little superhero, what more can a girl ask for? God has been so gracious to me with these sweet lives. Getting excited to see what the newest dude is going to add to our crazy crew!

My family

I find that the older I get the more often I lose perspective. So thankful for a God who blessed me with three very real ways to see things differently. Sometimes taking the time see things through the eyes of my four year old is the best way to do life.
On our damp day at home due to Tropical Storm Isaac....which hardly brought more than a drizzle....MJD sat at the table to make me a present....he does these little drawings all the time and I usually just pitch all the random papers that float around. But today, today he wrapped it up in a bag, presented it to me and said as purely as possible, "I love you mama, this is for you." When I opened it up and said will you tell me about it he replied, "It's us. Our family. You, me, dada, Liam and Lincoln."

This is what life is all about. The moments of frustration, fear, apprehension, joy, success, struggle, bliss....all of it is worth it for building this world for them. Family.

Zoo Day

As if we don't have enough funny smells and loud noises in our home with all this boy creature, our family packed up for the day and headed out to the zoo....SO MUCH FUN.....and oh so HOT!

But the boys loved the afternoon of animal viewing....

 Giraffe feeding....

 Camel riding....

 Train Chooing.....

 

Water Splashing....

GOOD TIMES!

Finally

We're home...safe and sound....with a Nena and a Papa!!! What a great way to start the week :)

Easter 2012

Our family is so excited to celebrate another year praising our Savior. Hope you had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday. We even were able to get both boys dressed to match and clean to church on time :)

You do the math....

So today people will begin to receive a very interesting card from our family.......

Yes, folks...if you can't do math or figure out the card, Tim and I are expecting baby #3 into our family coming this Nov!

You're surprised?

HA! Me too!

Please don't get me wrong, we are very happy to have a healthy heartbeat and be blessed by God with another little life in our home. However, we were not trying to get pregnant and in no ways planning on this new addition, so it came as a shock when after the stomach bug hit our home I was a few days late and in an effort to appease my husband's fears I succumbed to a test and the little stripes went from a straight line to a bright + sign!

Oi! When we found out in mid-February about this news we were in some serious denial. Me more than Tim. I think he was more excited than I was, and my freaking out just freaked him out. So much so that we kept it under wraps til now, a couple weeks into April. A huge wave of fear seriously felt like it was going to engulf me. Really, God this was not in the plan book for this year!? Didn't you get the memo, Lord!?

I had just begun a hard core workout training session at the gym to regain control of my body....I was on the down side of nursing and looking forward to not sharing my body with another human again. I was contemplating possibly going to work again if my parents came back home so as to help us out financially. How is this going to be ok now?

After the denial passed, He started to remind me that I am SO not in control of my life and His plans are far more perfect for my life than what I may plan. So with that I take comfort.

And when I think about it....really honestly let my heart ponder all this....I know in the depth of my heart how wonderful a new child will be for us. Even if the timing is not what we would have chosen. That God is the only giver of life and for Him to entrust us with a new life is a great honor and privilege. That if this is my "complaint" then I am foolish. My fears and concerns are truly rooted more in my selfishness than in anything. That this sweet child is so precious and totally necessary to the completion of our family, so much so that God would interrupt our comfy, cozy lives to show us how much we need this babe.

And if you missed my sharing the story with you before, MJD has for months, been talking about wanting another baby in our family. Not a lot more, just one, he says. He even made it his wish at school a while back and came home with a project that said...."Twinkle, Twinkle, little star. If I could have one wish.....I want Mommy to have one more baby."
No joke, folks. Apparently I shouldn't have laughed back then! Cause God certainly heard his wish. And yes, he is just now finding out about the baby. Tim wanted to wait till we had a heartbeat before sharing the news with folks and we knew if we told MJD, then he'd tell the world.

Our little crew of 4 is now soon going to become a posse of 5. Thankfully I can fit 3 car seats in my car, (yes, that first week I learned about the new baby, I insisted Tim arrange the car to check!) we have bunk beds in MJD's room already, and if it's a boy again then we are well stocked in the world of Cars and Matchbox trucks. And should we be given a girl then our little world will be turned upside down with pigtails and paisley, I've always wanted to shop for a little girl. (On a side note.....I have had terrible all day morning sickness that makes me feel horribly miserable and requires medication...... I read online that women with such symptoms were 50% more likely to have girls....so maybe we will have some pigtails in this house after all. But either way, it's quite ok.)

(If you are reading this and you are an out of town follower....and haven't had a card show up, sorry to ruin the surprise. Your card should be there by Monday!)

Spoiled Rotten....

So MJD has this aunt.....Tia Gabi, a.k.a. T. She spoils him rotten. And they both love it!!!

Getting movie tickets to see the Muppets.

Getting money to ride the tots at the mall....

Plus the toys, trip to Toys R Us and the Elf....gotta love our T!!!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Thanksgiving 2011

How we celebrated this year.....
Fancy china......
Tia Gabi......


Tio Richard.....
Sparkling grape juice....

Big, yummy, honey glazed turkey.......
Big, silly turkey bibs for little boys on their First Thanksgiving......
Brother in law using the dessert plates instead of the dinner plates.....silly Richard!
Eating real turkey for the first time.....yummy!
Lots of love and smiles......

Blessings

I was going to post on Blessings the other day and then after a recent phone conversation, it felt more fitting tonight....As I some days struggle as to the why of God's timing, why He doesn't do things a certain way, why things haven't worked out easily for my parents to come home, why all these difficult struggles in life I am reminded to count my blessings.
So as my perspective has changed, and I've changed my viewpoint away from myself and more onto His sovereignty this song and these blessings keep coming to mind and strengthening my heart.....



As I think about the blessings that have come from the season of life I've had without my family near by I have learned....

How to work our marriage problems within the safety and security of my marriage without running to "tattle" to my family.
How to raise children on my own with my husband.
How to be confident in myself as a woman without living in a shadow.
How to extend mercy and grace to others because I have learned how desperately I need it.
How to go outside of my comfort zone to make friends because I don't have family to lean on near by.
How sweet it is to have a support group of friends.
How much I value and appreciate my parents' wisdom and guidance because I don't have to then near to help with things all the time, so when I do get wisdom or words of encouragement from them it is so much sweeter.
How to be a mother on my own.
How to step back from being a mother and let my own mother simply be a grandmother.
How to depend on my husband to provide, protect, and care for our family without the security of my father.
How to document and savor memories and events.
How to slow down and enjoy what really matters.
How to be grateful for gifts that my parents give us and the boys rather than feeling entitled.
How to care for my parents rather than then always caring for me.
How to be a friend with my mother and not just a daughter.
How to trust God to care for things.
How sweetly I can feel His presence around me.
How aware I am of His love for me.

I don't know why our prayers for them to return haven't been answered yet. I know that they will be though, in His time and in His way. I know He desires good and perfect gifts for us. I know He loves us and will direct our paths. I know He is faithful and good and trustworthy. So when my weakness grows greater than my faith, I remind myself that He is always blessing us, even when what we're walking through doesn't feel like a blessing. Being without my family these past 5 years has hardly felt like a blessing at times, but if I look back at what He has done for me, I can see how clearly He is blessing me.

Halloween 2011

We're not super crazy, spooky, big on Halloween fans, but Tim and I both had a lot of fun growing up and doing the trick or treating and dressing up, so we want our boys the same opportunity. So we do the costumes and the church events and even the Halloween night ritual of going door to door and getting candy....(always supervised and in a safe place, of course!)

This year, rather than brave the chaos that has been the PG downtown district, we decided to head out with some friends to their neighborhood, which has quite a few more homes that are candy friendly than our area.

And with Halloween being on a Monday, we were able to maximize costumes and candy by doing something every day starting with the weekend.

Our first holiday stop was at MJD's preschool....
(I have to stop and put in a plug. They do a fantastic job at every and all events that they do. The staff is always inviting, they really reach out to the community, share the love of Jesus and have a heart for children's ministry that is sincere, genuine and life giving. I am always pleased to support their efforts and have been abundantly blessed that my child loves it there.) I decided for this event Bean would sport it new pumpkin hat from Kara and forgo the costume. MJD had a great time and we enjoyed candy, dinner, bounce houses and games.
We also visited my in-laws' church for their event, but we forgot the camera and since it started raining we didn't stay long with the little ones. But it was fun while we were there.

Halloween night we met up with our friends and did trick or treating....Neither boy knew the other one was also going to be Spiderman, so they were both excited!
Here's our little monkey....he was so great for all we put him through. Too bad he doesn't even get to reap the benefits of Halloween yet :)
This is not a great photo, but about as good as it's going to get in our season of life, especially with costumes on and candy waiting to be collected :)

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday we went hunting for our family pumpkins, MJD had school pictures, and I shopped for fabric for new projects.

Today the weather is cool, rather chilly compared to yesterday. Bean wore pants and shoes!! MJD has been talking about marriage and asking questions. When Tim asked him who he was going to marry, MJD replied, "I don't know. I am going to have to ask God who to marry." Oh my word, what wisdom. Just melted my heart. She will certainly be a lucky lady.

Tomorrow I get to do a girls day and help out my girlfriend with her baby registry as we get ready for her sweet baby girl to arrive :)

I walked away to run into the bathroom real quick, when I walked back in he was already passed out. Guess he was a tad bit tired :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Fall Beginnings

While the colors on the trees aren't changing, we can certainly still tell that fall is around the corner. The weather is slowly but surely starting to cool some which is perfect for our Saturday soccer sessions as well as all the fall festivals and pumpkin patches that are beginning to take place. Which was exactly how we spent our Saturday together.

Building a tool box kit from Home Depot

Telling Santa what we want for Christmas.(I am amazed I got both boys there with no tears!!!!)

Sporting pants without sweating. Still not cool enough for shoes, don't worry, Nena.

Bounce wrestling with Jackson.

First family pumpkin patch photo of the season.

We are so ready for fall!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Birthday Celebration Part 2...Magic Kingdom

For MJD's big 4 birthday celebration we all headed up to Magic Kingdom. It was honestly a perfect day! The weather was wonderfully cool (for here in Fl.), the boys behaved wonderfully, lines were short and we were able to do his favorite rides and events multiple times. Even our worst experience in the park (being stuck on the people mover before park closing and having a rude attendant) turned into a wonderful blessing, as it ended up in a free day of park hopping the next day!

Papa and Grammy treated us to quite a wonderful day for the birthday boy!

Buzz Lightyear Space Rangers was a BIG hit with both boys, well I suppose all the boys really. Daddy even came super close to the max score possible!
Growing up to be a big strong man like his Daddy :)

Next big favorite was the Raceway Speedway. Thank God MJD won't get his license for many more years :)
The Astro Glider was fun, we were surprised MJD wanted to do it as it went up REALLY high and he's rather scared of heights. (This is also where Daddy left the camera in the ride and we "lost" it for a few hours! Praise Jesus we were able to retrieve it. Gotta love kind people at Disney.)
Both littles were quite tired right about the time the parade started, and since we had to go find our camera on the other side of the park, we took advantage of the train that went the length of the park.
Birthday boy took possession of the stroller for about 2 hours and napped like a king. At least he was happy and rested when he awoke and we all enjoyed some quiet time in AC at a little restaurant.
Bean was a BIG fan of the little fan! We had a great time teasing him while brother napped.
We were stuck on the People Mover....which ended up in free tickets. So while we waited the boys "played" together.

MJD even went on SPLASH MOUNTAIN, which he wasn't thrilled about after the fact as it scared him, but he was so brave. He didn't quite realize it would drop the way it did :)

All around wonderful, perfect, memorable birthday celebration of turning 4 with our new family of 4.