Going on a trip

Christian and McKenna were going to go on a trip today.

I'm not sure where they were going, but they were packing up a bunch of stuff in the playroom and they kept asking me if Will could go with them. They wanted to put him in the baby doll stroller. I told them he wouldn't fit and that it was made for dolls and wasn't safe for babies. But they persisted (imagine that!) so I sat Will in the baby doll stroller just to prove my point.
Poor Will wasn't so sure about it at first.

His sister thought it was the greatest thing ever and was ready to take him for a spin (which did NOT happen).

And pretty soon that chubby little guy thought all the attention was pretty funny.
His poor little body was practically sandwiched in that stroller. Will ya look at that belly smile!!

The view from my front porch

Can you spot Christian & Ryan???

Call me crazy...

but I think the Duggars might be onto something. Everytime I look at this sweet face I am just so thankful. So thankful that we didn't stop at two. It makes my heart sick to think about the joy we would have missed out on with this precious little treasure if we would have been satisfied with our one boy and one girl. I'm certainly not judging anyone with one kid or two kids or nineteen kids. I'm just saying that I think it's important to really let God write your story. We were almost done with two but my heart just didn't feel settled about it and so I waited and waited for Ryan to feel the same way. And I know that Ryan can't imagine life without our precious boy either. He told me today that he wished he had held him more this weekend. That he misses him.
And so for about the twentieth time today I'm going to go kiss my sweet boy and say "thank you Jesus."

Around our House

Celebrating Ryan!

May 12, 2011 we celebrated Ryan's birthday!
Christian & Grandmom made these cupcakes earlier in the day and Christian creatively decorated them ;)



Someone asked me what we were going to do for Ryan's birthday and I said "We're going to Christian's t-ball game and then we're having ice cream cake." Nothing super exciting, but honestly that's probably all Ryan wanted out of the day. He's so easy to please and loves playing ball with Christian. And he loves ice cream cake too!!



Christian was cracking us up photographing everything with his DSi. He loves to take pictures and takes about 20 pictures of the same thing.

Christian showing Ryan one of his pictures he took!

It was a fun family night as we celebrated our favorite guy!

Moving on up!

Christian graduated from preschool and we are so proud of him!

He is more than ready to start Kindergarten next fall.

I think the thing that amazes us the most about Christian is his mathmatical skills. It's really quite shocking. He loves to add numbers, count by tens, count by fives and count to one thousand. I always ask him "how" he has figured out certain problems and most of the time he can't tell you. But then every now and then he'll say "Well, I know that 12+40=52 because 10+40 is 50 and then you add 2." or "I know that 410+56=466 because 10+56 is 66 and then you add 400 to that." Wowzers!!! I know I'm totally bragging about my own kid, but for heaven's sake he hasn't even started kindergarten yet! Now keep in mind, he's awesome with math and totally normal with everything else. Ask him to write something and he might just literally fall on the floor and cry about it.

Christian made lots of special friends that we hope to see again in the fall.

We could not be more thankful for his teachers.

I had no idea when we signed him up for preschool that he would be getting so much more than crafts and stories and letter recognition. Christian's teachers have prayed for him, encouraged him to memorize scripture and have worked at developing godly character in him. They have been a priceless gift to our family and have partnered with us in teaching Christian to make Jesus an important part of his life.

Christian's main teacher, Mrs. Miller, has an amazing talent that I consider to be a divine gift from God. She never yells. Ever. Did you hear that people?? The woman teachers 20 preschoolers every day and she NEVER raises her voice. When she wants to get everyones attention she just quietly says "When you can hear me, put your hands on your head. When you can hear me, touch your toes. When you can hear me...." And pretty soon the entire class is silently looking at her. I think I stood there with my mouth hanging opened the first time I saw it. Clearly teaching preschool is her calling and I could take a few lessons from her!

I did shed one tiny tear during the preschool graduation. Those slide shows with sappy music and pictures from the entire year are meant to be tear jerkers. So I couldn't help by cry a little, but overall I was just so proud of Christian (he's come a long way) and I'm so excited for him to move onto Kindergarten. It's going to be great (remind me next fall when I put him on the bus for the first time that I said that)!!

This officially stinks....

Beware...major pity party ahead....


I think I'm getting sick.
Everyone else in the world is getting excited about a long weekend and I feel awful.
My husband worked til midnight last night and who knows what time tonight.
I've got to get all the laundry done so he can pack his bags & head out of town soon.
Allergies.
Asthma.
And I feel like throwing up.
What a combination.
I can't get sick.
Not now!!!
Not for the next 7 weeks.

Okay, the pity party is over.
The good news is......
drum roll please.....

Will slept a total of 11.5 hours last night
and only woke up once!
WooHoo!!!
He's the best little boy ever.
A.D.O.R.E him!

Christian was so sweet to McKenna at the playground today.
She was scared to walk across one of those wobbly bridges.
He wrapped his arms around her and did it with her.
Then she wouldn't go down the slide.
He stood at the bottom trying to coax her down.
No dice.
So he climbed back up to the top,
sat down
put her in his lap
and they went down together.
Honestly I sat there and just thanked Jesus.
I needed that and made sure Christian knew just how huge that was.

Is it bedtime yet???

It's "Fireworks Season"

Yikes...don't drop him! Okay, so the pictures in this post have nothing to do with what I'm writing about...but posts with pictures are always better!!

So "Fireworks Season" is upon us.

It can also be referred to as "single parent season."

So far so good!

My biggest challenge this year is getting the grass mowed.

I know that must sound silly but we have almost 3 acres that we need to keep mowed and it is terribly hard to do with a baby in the house. And I'm just not the kind of girl who can just "let it go." So Christian has officially become the babysitter. I get Will down for a nap and then hand Christian the monitor and tell him to listen while I mow. Then he comes out to get me when he hears crying. It's working out pretty well as long as I don't leave McKenna in the house with him. Those two...ugh...I'll leave that for another post.

At bedtime last night McKenna asked me where Daddy was.
I explained that he was still at work and she said,
"I miss his face. I never get to see his face."
Bless her heart. It was so sad.
She loves her daddy so much and I know that her daddy misses her.
I let her call daddy anytime she wants to. She loves to dial his number and can almost do it by herself. Today she called him to tell him about her pretty dress and about the scrap on her knee.


Ryan is going to be gone for an extended period of time coming up here pretty soon and
while this time is challenging for our family we are very thankful for his job and for the company he works for.
About a month ago his company went through some difficult changes that directly affected Ryan's job and it was STRESSFUL. I think there were a few nights when I barely slept! We had to make some very difficult decisions but those times of testing when you're just wishing God would speak in a audible voice are always a time of growth and it was good for us.


Make sure you buy some TNT Fireworks this season!
And keep praying that I survive until July 5th!

In the basement...Again!

When the State Police call and tell you to seek shelter because there is a tornado warning it freaks you out just a bit. So we're hanging out in our basement consuming way too many Fruit by the Foots and Lunchables (they were the quickest thing to grab). The sky is incredibly dark and we're really wishing Daddy was home, but this wireless internet is pretty great!!

----------------------------------

We're great!! Safe and sound!!! It's crazy though....I don't live in tornado alley or anywhere close to it. What in the world is going on?? I think they just have better tools now to predict these things and people are just more informed, which is great. But it's always a little nerve wracking for sure!!!

Wordless Wednesday!

I could just eat him up!

Sunday am

This boy is just so precious!

My favorite thing on earth is when he first wakes up from a really sound sleep and he lays there and babbles and then as soon as he sees me he smiles so big.

McKenna put on this "party" dress this morning for church and because she knew it was Grandmom's birthday. In case you don't know this....it's considered a "party" dress when it has a big bow in the back. As soon as McKenna got a look at herself in the mirror she looked at Christian and said, "Dance with me. I'm a princess."
Oh my word, it was the sweetest thing ever.
So I sang "You are my sunshine" and they danced around Christian's room.


Look at this super cool guy. He got a REAL boomerang from Australia from a person who works for Ryan. He is thrilled with it.

Another one of the sweet boy.

And the princess.

The boomerang & the boy.

Christian wanted a picture with Will and his prized boomerang.

And this is what happened when Christian told McKenna to do a tough guy pose with the boomerang. They are entertaining aren't they?!

Grandmom

Today was my mom's birthday!

After church we had a special lunch in her honor!

Christian worked very hard on Grandmom's card. He wrote out William's entire name for the first time and made sure to include everyone's age along with their name :)

PopPop always loves holding his favorite baby! That boy definitely gets his fill of attention when my parents are around.

An Interview with McKenna:

McKenna: "I'm excited when Grandmom comes to my house and I'm sad when she's gone."

Me: "Why do you like spending time with Grandmom?'

McKenna: "Because she likes playing games. I like to do puzzles with her."

Me: "Where do you like to go with Grandmom?"

McKenna: "Grandmom's house."

Me: "Why do you like Grandmom's house?"

McKenna: "Because she lets me play with water."

Me: "What's Grandmom's favorite color?"

McKenna: "Pink"

Me: "How old is Grandmom?"

McKenna: "25"

Me: "What does Grandmom like?"

McKenna: "Nice girls."

Me: "What does Grandmom call you?"

McKenna: "Dolly."

Me: "Who is Grandmom's best friend."

McKenna: "Me"

An Interview with Christian:

Me: How old is Grandmom?

Christian: 67

Me: What is Grandmom's favorite color?

Christian: Yellow

Me: What do you like to do with Grandmom?

Christian: Play Sorry & Candyland with her.

Me: Where do you like to go with Grandmom?

Christian: Annie's Playground

Me: What do you like about Grandmom?

Christian: That she always likes to play games with me and I like how she talks to me.

Me: What else can you tell me about Grandmom?

Christian: That she's usually nice.

Me: If you could buy Grandmom anything in the world for her birthday, what would you buy?

Christian: A picture of our family and all of our friends.

The End!

P.S. Grandmom's favorite color is blue and she's not 25!

A Trip to the Farm

Christian's preschool class took a trip to the dairy farm last week!
McKenna was so cute...about a week before the trip she asked Christian's preschool teacher if she could go. Good thing the answer was "yes!" She loved being with the big kids and I love the fact that Grandmom volunteered to go on the trip so I could stay home with Will!!

Such a big girl. Anytime you ask her about her trip to the farm she'll tell you that she saw a cow pee. That made quite an impression on her and she tells EVERYONE about it.

And Christian just loved being with his friends!

Thanks for going on the trip Grandmom!!

Mother's Day 2011

Rainbow

Wordless Wednesday!

2 Months

Well that was interesting....

Just a few miles from my house.....

So apparently sitting in the basement with my kids for 45 min. tonight was NOT an overreaction.
And calling my parents to warn them to head to the basement ended up being a pretty good idea. These pictures were taken just to the south of us. Yikes! I'll tell you what, I think it's time for me to buy a weather radio that comes on automatically when bad weather is in our area.

A Surprise Visit

Does anyone even recognize this girl????

What about this one with the missing teeth??

Or this grown up guy???

Back at the beginning of May (whew..I've got some catching up to do) we had a huge surprise for Christian. Grandmom and PopPop were going to go visit Emma, Abby and Nathan and I secretly asked if Christian could tag along. We kept it a secret until the last minute because McKenna would have been heart broken if she had figured out where he was going. The night before we told Christian he would be leaving in the morning to see his cousins and I wish I had it on video. He jumped off the couch and stood there with his mouth open unable to speak. Like he seriously almost couldn't breathe he was so excited!!

The grandparents purpose in visiting was to see Emma's orchestra concert!

She's up there somewhere :)

There's my long lost sister!!! We should start an email petition to make her start blogging again don't you think??

Christian had the best time with his BFF Nathan! They got to spend the whole day together on Friday! Just the boys!

Grandmom got to visit Abby and Emma at their school for Grandparent's Day!
It was so good for Christian to see his cousins. He loves them so much and we can't wait for their next visit!