Tag!

I got tagged by Nikki! This is a photo tag game & I had to post my 4th picture out of my 4th picture file. This one will take you back...

This is a picture we took for Christmas the year Zachary was born...trying to get a nice one for our Christmas picture. This one didn't make it! But Z has such a cute look on his face, like "mom, get this hat off me!" I think Z was 4 or 5 weeks old here.

Well, no time to tag anyone else. Kenna is crying! Thanks, Nikki, for tagging me though...it was fun to look back at some old pictures!

Snow & sweetness

This was Zachary at 13 months enjoying one of the many big snowfalls we used to have. I have so many pictures of him enjoying the snow while we lived in IL.



Here he is this morning, enjoying the tiny tiny bit of snow on top of the car. (can you see it?) He's been asking about snow for a few months now and was so excited to touch it. Poor kid, we took him away from his snow playground!


And here's the sweetness. I came around the corner today to find them holding hands, with Kenna just looking at him like he was the greatest big brother in the world. Of course, that could be because he gave her cinnamon toast for breakfast this morning. You really can't leave him alone for a second with her--you never know what he's going to do!! Lesson learned....

Something to chew on

Check out this thoughtful post from my sister. Forgetting what is behind...

What a great reminder. I was just thinking about that the other day when I read the passage in Hebrews 11:32-12:3. Paul mentions all those heroes of faith, then says "in light of everything they've done, let us throw off everything that hinders..."

I've been really thinking about what that means for me, throwing off everything that is not Christ or does not point to Him. That is a lot of things for me. I mean, really, how many things in our lives don't glorify Him?

The New Living Translation of the Bible says in Hebrews 12:1 "...Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sins that so easily trip us up." This makes me think that it's not just sin that hinders our running free for Him; it is other things, the "cares of this life" that choke the Word that is trying to grow in the good soil of our hearts.

Sometimes it's not just bad things that hinder us, but the good things done in a wrong way. Like too much time on the Internet (my biggie), or reading too many novels & not enough of the Bible, or being lazy when we should be productive.

Something I'm dealing with right now is overeating. It's so easy for me to not think about what I'm putting into my body because I'm breastfeeding & starving all the time. I have so many extra calories I can take in because of that, but I'm not choosing the best calories. I felt the Lord gently speak this to me the other day. I mean, not only am I not glorifying Him with my body, a temple of His Spirit, but I could be losing those pregnancy pounds instead of just maintaining my weight.

Then in Hebrews 12:2 Paul says "We do this [running our race with endurance] by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."

I guess you could call it "food for thought." Ha! I'm feeling rather corny today. (wow, truly didn't mean that pun but it was funny nonetheless!)

Caught on camera

Some cute pictures of my little girl...

Here she is showing off how high she can lift her head up during tummy time:


Showing off her beautiful dress & cardigan sweater that she wore to church today: (I am having a blast dressing up a little girl!) oh, and tights, too! As a side note, I just have to say I am proud we made it through the whole service without spitting up or pooping on this dress...

Trying to get a sweet picture of the kids...didn't work out so well. She went from looking sweet in the picture above to telling us exactly how she felt!

And, drumroll please......she is finally smiling!!! I don't think I've mentioned this on my blog, but she's been smiling very selectively at Daddy only for the last 3 weeks. In the last 3 wks, I think I've received about 3 smiles from her; Daddy has gotten about 10 times that.

But the last 2 days, she has been smiling like crazy! And look at what a beautiful smile it is:

Plus I just love that purple headband! I promise her smile is even sweeter in person; it's so hard to catch on camera. There's nothing like these sweet babies when they smile back at you!

My day with 4

Yesterday I watched a friend's children for her...plus my own. I have to say, the day went so much better than I expected! (not that I didn't expect the children to be good, because they are all naturally good kids, but because I wasn't sure how I'd handle it)

All 4 kids are under the age of 4...the funny thing is, my friend figured out I could have actually given birth to all 4, how their ages worked out. That would be a bit crazy, I have to say!

This picture doesn't quite describe what I walked in on since I caught it too late, but here is Easton leading the other 2 kids in worship songs. It was super sweet! You can see Zachary is clapping his hands & when I walked in, Easton was directing them all with his hands...funny! It's so neat to see kids praising the Lord when you're not looking.


Yes, I actually had a chance to take pictures of my day. That tells you how well it went! Here they are having fun coloring. (well, I think they're actually having a serious discussion about which colors to use...)



Sweet Makenlee

Z-man

Easton...he was coloring his picture for his mom!

Did I mention I went to bed at 9 pm? :)

The Birthday Boy

Zachary's good friend Michael came over for a birthday playdate. I just didn't have it in me to have a birthday party, plus we really just forgot to plan something in enough time. But a playdate still counts, right? They decorated these birthday cupcakes & had a great time. I think they ate more sprinkles than they put on the cupcakes!


Blowing out his birthday candle. Again, showing my lack of planning, he is blowing out his "1" candle. He didn't seem to notice that it was a 1 instead of a 3! This was the first year he's really gotten into his birthday...he told everyone that day it was his birthday, even the people at the post office that morning! He had a blast blowing out the candle and asked us if he could do it again!

Showing off his new Barney DVD, Let's Play School. A bargain we found for $2 at an antique store. Marc hates Barney but I don't mind it...good thing I'm the one who has to see it all day! He is obsessed with school lately so this was a good choice for him.

He said "Diapers!" when he opened this gift. Poor kid, thought he was getting diapers for his birthday (a bummer anyway, but especially when you're potty-trained!)....

Oh, here it is! A Little People ferris wheel, courtesy of Duck Duck Goose. He's played with this toy at his grandparent's house & just loved it. I was glad to find it on sale.

He got a few other small things. The cutest part of it all was when I brought his wrapped presents downstairs...there were only 4 of them. He started passing them out to me & Marc like it was Christmas time! So sweet! You should have seen his face light up when Marc told him that all those presents were just for him....precious.

What is this world coming to?

....never thought I'd see the day when you can use your credit card to get a can of Coke from the machine.


(This was at the zoo, by the way)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Zachary!

Birth-day, 2005!





1 yr old, 2006

2 yr old, 2007

3 yr old, 2008!

Hope you have a special day, little guy!

Musings on the day before his birthday

This time 3 years ago, I was in the hospital getting my labor induced with Zachary (due to suspected preeclampsia). We were a little frightened but mostly excited to GET THIS THING OUT OF ME--I mean, give birth to our precious baby boy. :) 8 weeks of bedrest will do crazy things to a person...

3 years ago today, I had no idea what being a mommy would look like or sound like or feel like. Now, I know. And it's been the best 3 years of my life so far. Well, I mean, starting tomorrow, it's been the best 3 years. Let's not count the actual labor & delivery if we don't have to. :)

In case I forget to post this tomorrow, Happy 3rd Birthday, Zachary! I love you.

A couple of cute pics of the kids...

My friend Melissa took this picture of Zachary at our house while she was watching the kids for me. It turned out so good!



Kenna enjoying her bumbo seat for the 1st time. Z thought it was really important that she wear his hat! I don't think she liked the hat so much--she was smiling in the seat before that!



Z on the way home from a playdate. We had so much fun & he was so tuckered out! He fell asleep with his hand in this bag of cheese cubes. My little man is getting so huge!

I am a nerd.

Only nerds take pictures of their groceries.

This was my Walgreens trip. Total cost after rebates: $2.69 for 2 packs of diapers, 1 mascara, & 4 bags M&Ms.

This was CVS. I paid nothing for this, plus earned $5 to use on my next trip. 2 pkg pull-ups, 1 wipes, 1 expensive saline solution.

Food City: $13.29 for 5# apples, 1 Jif PB, 7 bags frozen veggies

I also went to Kroger, Walmart, & Sam's Club but didn't take pictures of those trips. In all, I spent $115 for 2 weeks of groceries. Still over my $100 budget, but I stocked up on some good stuff.

12 Random Thoughts at 12:12 a.m.

Popping 'em off as they come to me....not responsible for how bizarre...

1. I just ate 4 hershey kisses.
2. Took some cute pics of the kids today. One of Z fallen asleep in the car with his hand in a bag of cheese cubes.
3. Loving the fall weather & loving that I got to go outside today.
4. Feeling like the old me again is sheer heaven.
5. My daughter is beautiful.
6. I took this really funny ghetto pink Avon purse to shop with tonight. Looked about 14.
7. Wait, no 14 yr old would carry that Avon purse. Maybe 7 yrs old?
8. When I was 7, my little brother was born. My hair was straight and the year was ....
9. 1987.
10. Yup I'm an 80s baby.
11. Hurry before 12:12 runs out
12. Night night

Update: well, you caught me, I started the post at 12:09 but I truly finished at 12:12. Weird how they time it. Off to do some laundry.

A funny story I read online...

(this is not from any member of my family or anyone I know...)

"My dad is a pastor. One Sunday morning as he was guest preaching at another church, he realized that his pants zipper was unzipped. This church had a clear acrylic podium, so he couldn't step behind the podium to zip up his pants. So he kept preaching while looking for a way to subtly zip up his pants. Then he noticed the American flag sitting on one side of the stage. (You know, old school baptist churches with the American Flag on one side and the Christian Flag on the other side) He walked over to the flag, somehow managed to add a little patriotic twist to his sermon, and zipped up his pants. But his zipper got caught in the tassels on the flag. And he was stuck. Zipper 1/2 way down, tangled to the flag. By now, he was sweating, and trying inconspicuously to wrestle with the flag tassels. Realizing there was no way out, he managed to keep the patriotic twist in the rest of his sermon (thank you, Lord, for quick thinking - and strong arm muscles to carry the flag for the rest of the sermon) and then told the congregation that he "thought it would be patriotic to all process out of the church like the kids in VBS do." He finished his sermon, led the entire church in the "procession" out (all while carrying the flag) and untangled his zipper. All without anyone in the congregation being any the wiser."

Links to learn from

I've hit some really good, thought-provoking posts this week. See if any of them minister to you as well.

Relating to parenting my children:

Be a Yes Mom by Blissfully Domestic....this has changed the way I do things this week. I'm definitely having more fun!

A great reminder about teaching First Time Obedience by Keeper of the Home. This is one of my favorite blogs to read. Keeps me on my toes!

My new favorite website: Raising Godly Tomatoes. I'm reading her book (it's on her blog) and oh my goodness where has this resource been the last 3 years? I've started working on some of the principles with Zachary and am already seeing a change.

Training vs. Discipline by The Finer Things in Life. This went along with the previous 2 links, but reminded me even more that I shouldn't just be correcting, I should be training. Definitely a difference in the two.

A great reminder to be praying for our children. I love the way that Angie added Scripture prayers to go along with the routine daily activities to keep us praying for our kiddos!

And the last one (whew), a heart-check: Envy vs. Admiration...When She's Got What You Want by Life as Mom. This is not parenting related, just girl talk.


I know this is a lot more links than usual, but I promise, every one of them is worth your time. I love being able to learn and be sharpened by other Godly women...even women I have never met!

One more thing.

You know how you have those days where you feel like you can conquer the world? Well, today was one of those days. And, apparently, I am conquering the world. Not only did I vacuum the downstairs, but the downstairs is actually fit for company (so come on over), kitchen is completely clean, etc.

What a good feeling.

I am feeling back to my old (pre-pregnancies) normal today, despite the lack of rest. It's such a good feeling... (think Mister Rogers' theme song).

This past weekend, we did accomplish one thing. We own this large, stand-alone freezer that I love. There was no room for it in this house. It's been sitting on the patio, all alone & sad looking. We couldn't use it, because apparently there were no outside plugs anywhere in our townhouse (per the attached-next-door-neighbor who's lived here 8 yrs). Long story short, I discovered last week that there actually IS a plug outside. Needless to stay, the freezer is cleaned out, plugged in, and ready for business. I have already started to fill it with all my wonderful pre-prepped food. What a time saver! And a $$ saver. Now I can stock up on freezable items when they go on sale & not have to reorganize my freezer just to get something out every time. Woo-hoo!

Another time saver.... We had a wireless network system in our last home, along with our laptop. A wonderful invention, to say the least. When we moved here & hooked up with our new ISP, they told me it would take some "doing" to get the router hooked up to their network, etc, etc. I tried it more than once, & chalked it up to "it's an old router trying to hook up to Windows Vista"...could never get it to work.

Tonight I got online, looked up some instructions, thinking I'd try one last time. Wouldn't you know, I'm writing to you from my new wireless network. I don't understand why it was so hard last year...it only took me like 15 minutes to do? What's up with that? Marc sleeps at odd hours of the day, and I don't have any access to the computer in the evenings after Z goes to bed. Which is, of course, when I actually enjoy using the computer. So Yeah! for my new internet surfing abilities in the evening! I'm super super excited. Of course, I'll only be using my new powers for good. Like paying bills online. Definitely not stalking facebook or blogging. :) Well, maybe just a little?

For the first time in over 8 weeks...

I vacuumed.

**lest you think I'm a horrible housekeeper, :) which might not be too far from the truth--I had a c-section so I could not push a vacuum until 2 weeks ago.

But no excuses for the last 2 weeks! Ha.

Whew!

It's weeks like this last one that make me thankful for this:

These are pictures taken at the cabin me, Marc, & Kenna stayed at a few weekends ago. It was the epitome of peace. I was oh so sad to leave!

Most everyone is feeling a bit better today. Kenna has a cold but she's handling it well. Our carpet did not handle Z's illness well...we bought a deep cleaning vacuum yesterday. (nobody ever tells you what to do when your recently potty trained child gets diarrhea...)

In the midst of all the chaos, I still managed to make a pan of brownies, which were awesome, but I'm sure did nothing to help me lose this baby weight! :) Marc jokingly asked if they were laced with vodka...we were all a little stressed out this weekend. 2 cranky kids + 2 sleepy parents = chaos for sure! Pepsi is our "alcoholic" drink of choice...and we had some this weekend!

I'm so thankful for the Word of God, though. What a blessing and comfort in hard times! A good friend gave me this Scripture: "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22 I've been pondering that word "sustain" and just meditating on this Scripture this weekend. Every time I was ready to get so angry at how my weekend was so far from what I'd planned, I remembered that no matter what I was going through, He would sustain me. Not only that, but His Joy would be my strength. It's only His Word and His promises that will get me through these tough young years and not only survive, but raise my children up to know the Lord.

But who can blame me for wanting to escape to that peaceful cabin in the woods? :)