Coming Home....

Ryan had quite an eventful week in Alabama. I'm so thankful he's on his way home right now.

We really, really need to pray for everyone affected by these tornadoes. Even simple things are a challenge right now in Alabama. Ryan was so thankful that he had almost a full tank of gas before the tornadoes hit because it's almost impossible to get gas in Alabama or Southern Tennessee right now. The lines are super long at stations that actually do have power and many stations don't.

Ryan drove through Glade Springs, Virginia tonight at dusk and it was sobering. He said he felt like he was in a movie. The destruction went on for 10 miles. Hotels flattened. Tractor trailers flipped over. Trees obliterated. Tons of emergency vehicles and power company trucks lined the highway. Five people died there on Wednesday night. So, so sad. It makes me so thankful.

Life is so precious and so fragile. I hope and pray that you each know with confidence where you'll spend eternity. Romans 10:9 says, "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." I believe with all my heart that Jesus desires to have a personal relationship with each of us and it's through that relationship that we can receive forgiveness for our sins and spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus. I'm so thankful that Jesus is RIGHT NOW preparing a place for us in Heaven. What comfort!

An Easter Recap!

Easter Eve!

Dying Easter eggs and a fun bunny cake!


More Easter Egg fun and an egg hunt at church!

The kids got way too much candy at the church egg hunt!!

Resurrection Sunday!

Easter Basket fun!

Christian went wild at our family egg hunt.

McKenna hunting eggs!

Three Years Ago

THIS is what my life was like (3) years ago. Funny how it hasn't changed that much. I still pretty much spend my days doing the same things.

Blogging Peer Pressure :)

Well, after putting it out there yesterday that I never scrub my kitchen floor.....today I scrubbed my kitchen floor. Like really scrubbed it. No swiffer wet jet was involved. It took me three hours because I was interrupted 500 times, but I got it done.

I also scrubbed our kitchen chairs. Have you ever done that? ewe!

I did make my kids eat lunch outside because I couldn't handle the thought of them messing up my clean floor. The sun was too much for Christian (what a surprise!) so they ended up eating in the garage. Maybe I'll make them eat dinner in the garage too, so my floor will stay clean until tomorrow. Just kidding!!!

So now I'm going to confess something else, with the hopes that this blogging peer pressure (that I created myself) will motivate me to get it done. Here goes: The sheets on Christian's bed haven't been changed since before Will was born. Everyone else's sheets have been changed, just not Christian's. He doesn't seem to care, but I really should do something about that.

So what's your least favorite household chore???

Mine is definitely laundry. I can't stand it mainly because it never ends. I'm never done. I can never really check it off the list.

What about you?

RAnDomNeSS

For starters, I'm a nervous wreck about Ryan right now. He's in Northern Alabama and there is a tornado outbreak. The weather is downright awful down there right now. Last night Ryan woke up to the sound of tornado sirens and today he spent over an hour sitting in a hallway while two tornadoes touched down within miles of him. We all need to pray for the people of Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, that the Lord will protect and preserve their lives and homes!





In other new, for two nights in a row Will wet through his size 2 diapers. So last night I finally whipped out the box of size 3's. Yup, that's right...my six week old baby is wearing a size 3 diaper. Crazy!!





Another preschool mom had a baby boy two weeks ago. He's teeny tiny compared to Will and today Christian said, "Mom, don't you just love Naomi's baby brother. He's so tiny and cute. I think I like him better than Will." To which I replied, "Well, you're not allowed to like other babies better than Will. It's a rule; you're brother has to be your favorite." He looked at me like I was crazy, then shrugged and said "okay." I know, I'm an awesome mom :)





I went to the dermatologist today (told you this was going to be random). My skin is always a hormonal mess when I have a baby and I just couldn't stand it anymore. Well, the first words out of the dermatologists mouth were "you really have a lot of sun damage on your face." What?? I know I'm a freckled mess, but I didn't really think it was sun damage, but apparently so and all those freckles are just going to keep getting darker and more pronounced. Good grief I'm getting old. She said, by the time I'm 40 I should start having annual cancer screenings. Hello??? So people....wear sunscreen!!! She told me I should have SPF 30 on my face every day! And I should also be using cream/lotion at night with Retinal in it to prevent all the wrinkles I'm going to get eventually because I've gotten too much sun in the past. I had to pay a pretty penny for that advice, so there you go....a free skincare lesson for you!


I was giving Will a bath the other night and as usual McKenna was in on the action. And she said, "I hope Will does that waterfall trick again." I was puzzled for a second and then I remembered.... the last time I gave Will a bath he peed and to her complete amazement it shot straight up in the air. Apparently it reminded her of a waterfall. Nice.


One last bit of randomness...
THIS is one of my most favorite things on earth! I think every mom with young kids should have one. It's cordless!! It's super light!!! It is awesome on hardwood, laminate & carpet!! Did I mention that it's cordless!!!! I'm in love and my kitchen floor actually looks deceptively clean. It's not really clean because I never scrub it, but you won't see any crumbs on it either! Love it!!

bRoTHerS

Christian was watching TV today and this is what I saw when I looked over at him :)

Soul Sister

This picture is circa 1995! That's by childhood BFF, Sarah!

And I got to see her in person last week!!

Reagan, Scotty, McKenna, Riley, Christian & Will
Sarah's three boys with my three kiddos! It was so fun to see them all playing together.

McKenna adored playing with Scotty, although she could not remember his name. After they left she kept calling him "that boy."

Poor Will. Ha! Scotty & McKenna just loved getting their picture taken with him.

Reagan had the magic touch with Will! Will was totally content to let Reagan hold him.

It was just good for my soul to see my dear friend Sarah. We've been friends since middle school. We've lived a lot of life together and I continue to be blessed by her friendship. She's one of the reasons I blog and I'm so thankful she blogs too. It makes me feel like we're neighbors :)

And what a blessing that her husband, Warren, doesn't mind stopping by to hang out whenever they're traveling through the area!

Thanks for visiting us guys!! Let's do it again soon :)

T-Ball

Christian's first official t-ball season kicked off at the beginning of this month. You just haven't heard about it because I haven't been there (unless you count the 5 min. I spent dropping him off last week).
Thankfully my dear friend Raeann managed to take a few pictures of Christian! He loves it. So far it's just been practice, but the games start next week (I think! I'm so out of the loop)!

Ryan and Christian have spent hours practicing in the backyard and he really is improving.
Christian absolutely loved soccer, so I've been hoping that t-ball will be a similar experience for him. We'll see. So far he loves it because his best friend is on the team and he just loves sports in general!! I'm sure this is the first of many, many posts about t-ball. So stay tuned!

Do your kids have this problem?

Christian can't stand to get his picture taken outside.

The sun seriously bothers him.

And he freaks out about it so much that Mckenna starts to have issues too.

It's a miracle we ever end up with decent pictures.

I figured I might as well put all these "bloopers" on the blog so I'll remember 20 yrs from now what an ordeal it was to get decent pictures!!

Happy Resurrection Day!

We spent a wonderful morning at church. Then we came home and had a little photo shoot. And this is the best we could get. VERY disappointing.
So we opted for individual shots! Look at this handsome guy!



McKenna loved all things Easter today! She was so excited about our family egg hunt!

Will has been such a precious boy lately! Happy 1st Easter little man. His brother and sister gave him a little set of Easter Thomas trains.

He is Risen!

Just the girls

There's a lesson in this....

I got a phone call this afternoon from my neighbor Mary.
She doesn't live on my street.
She lives out on the road about five houses down, before you turn into my neighborhood.
I've met her twice. She came to my yard sale last summer and I met her at our neighborhood picnic.
She is precious.
A mom of six grown children.
A grandmom of nine.

She said she was outside earlier this week working in her garden and she thought she heard a baby cry.
So she called her neighbor Dianne to ask her if I had had our baby yet.
I don't know Dianne, so of course Dianne didn't have a clue.
But Dianne did remember my last name, so Mary got my phone number and called.

She asked me about "the baby" and then asked if she could bring me dinner.
She was at my door in less than 10 minutes with dinner and a baby gift.
So sweet!

She held Will and we visited for half an hour.
She was a tiny piece of sunshine on an otherwise rainy, gloomy day.
Her extreme thoughtfulness blessed my heart.

It would have been so easy for her to never show up at my door.
She didn't know me.
Didn't really know when my baby was due.
Didn't know my last name or even my phone number,
but she didn't let any of that stop her from being a blessing.

Time for me to work harder at blessing others.
So many times I have good intentions.
I think of things I could do, but never follow through.
Time to start following through.


Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

My boys and a reminder from King David

Ryan's going to be gone next week, which is causing some serious anxiety for me. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle everything for five days without him, so I'm already assembling my "team" of people to help me. The "team" mainly consists of my mom with lots of other people popping in at various moments too. I think the weather is supposed to be decent, so that will help greatly.


This little guy has been having a tough time lately (which means we all have). He's got some tummy troubles and is sleeping less that he was three weeks ago. It's not fun. I've actually been feeling dizzy from the lack of sleep. Last night was better and I know we'll get this figured out. I've had a pretty good attitude about it (which is surprising). I haven't cried once :)

I just keep reminding myself that this is my calling right now. When I have this baby who squirms and fusses and needs me all night long, I remind myself that there is nothing on earth more important than loving him in that moment. That he is God's gift to me and even though my nights may seem long and my days may seem mundane that the reality is that being a mommy is a high calling!! God is using these challenging moments for His glory.

I was reminded of David earlier this week. How many nights did he sleep out under the stars watching over his sheep, thinking that he wasn't doing anything all that important? But God had bigger plans for him. God saw his faithfulness at doing a very unglorious job and God's favor was upon David. That shepherd boy became a king.

So if your kids are arguing and your laundry pile looks like mine....
If you're baby won't sleep and you can't even take a shower without interuption...
If you haven't brushed your teeth yet today and you're still in your pajamas...
...Just remember that God has called you to this!
He wants you exemplify His love in your kids lives. Your children have been given to you directly from the Lord and you are called to love them, be patient with them, teach them about God's goodness, train them how to behave and care for them. Don't grow weary in doing well!! God sees your faithfulness.

These Two

Christian

Thanks for praying for Christian!

Around 2:00 today he turned the corner, decided he was hungry, and started eating anything I would let him get his hands on.

The last meal he ate was on Sunday (lunch) so it had been 48 hours of no eating for him. He was starving!!

He was still throwing up this morning, so I did take him to the doctor around lunch time (should have just waited a few more hours and he would have been fine). But it was nice to know that it was just a virus and we did get a refill for a allergy med. for Christian, so it wasn't a complete waste of a trip.

Last night was pretty horrendous, but I mentally prepared myself ahead of time and pretty much planned on NOT sleeping, so I was okay with the miserable night we all had. Christian slept in bed with me, no fun. I felt his hot little feet touching me all night. Then there was the throwing up at various points. And Will was in the bassinet on the other side of me and he had his usual restless night. So I was super excited when my mom offered to take McKenna to her house this afternoon, so I could get a nap!!!

But it's over now!!! Yipee!! And tonight at bedtime Christian and I had a long talk with Jesus, just thanking him for being faithful to us even during the rough times and praising him that no one else in our family got sick.

Tomorrow I've got to get focused on Easter. I have not done a very good job of teaching/preparing my kids for Easter this year. We haven't even started our Ressurection Eggs and we should have started them days ago. At this point I'm pretty sure that McKenna thinks Easter is about Easter baskets and eggs and we have got to change that. We are going to do THIS cute little cooking craft later this week just for fun (and because it looks easy)! And tomorrow my kids are going to dye eggs for the first time ever. I'll take some pictures!!!

I've been wrong before...

And I'm worried that I might have guessed wrong again. Christian's "stomach virus" just hasn't seemed "normal" to me. If you can call a stomach virus normal. He has a bad cough and really hasn't throw up that much. High fever, bad headache, bad cough and not a ton of throwing up. I just remembered the time I totally thought Christian had a stomach bug and instead he had pneumonia. Oh my poor baby was so sick and looked so sad! So now I'm questioning myself and regretting the fact that I let this day go by without taking him to the doctor. Now we have another long night ahead of us and hopefully I can get a dr. appointment in the morning. You know your kid is sick when he says "Just turn off the tv. I can't watch that. I'm too sick." So he has laid in my bed all day. Doing nothing. Just laying there. Several times he's gotten up to go sit in the shower, but then he goes right back to bed. It's very sad! I'm so thankful that this is the first time he's been sick in months. Thank you Jesus! Now we are once again asking the Lord to restore healing to Christian's little body and to protect the rest of us this sickness.

You have got to be kidding....

What's worse than having no diet coke in your house??

Having a kid with a stomach virus throw up in your bed at 3 am.....

Having an infant wake up every two hours all night long....

Getting about maybe three hours of sleep (broken up all through the night).....

and then of course having no diet coke.

It's a pretty dire situation around here.

You should stay far far away

and be thankful that you're having a normal Monday morning.

UPDATE: My mom brought me some diet coke and some ginger ale and some of those Fever All suppositories for the poor boy throwing up (since medicine won't stay down). By the way, those Fever All things are great. If you have kids you should keep them in your house for times like this. Just ask for them behind the pharmacy counter.

Hosanna!!

I hope you all had a great Palm Sunday! What a beautiful day! We all made it to church this morning! It was Will's first time. Thankfully he slept through the entire service. Christian is already to the point where he gives me a look when I take his picture. This one says, "Why are you taking our picture in the car mom?" It was a big event...all five of us going to church together, so I was trying to document it.

And clearly this one didn't work out. Will looked so cute this morning in an outfit that used to be Nathan's, but I snapped this picture...realized I needed to do it again .... and then my batteries in my camera died... I was going to change them....then Will spit up on his outfit and that was the end of that. But trust me...he looked adorable!