I Heart Weekends!

I love weekends!  I love the family time.  I love that Daddy is home with us all day on Saturday.  We have had excellent weather the past several days and it was an absolutely beautiful weekend, so we spent a lot of time outside.

My favorite moment of the weekend was late Friday night on the way home.  We had driven about an hour and 15 minutes away to watch some of our youth girls play in their Friday night softball game.  And since we're an hour from Wal-Mart, we made a grocery stop before heading home.  So needless to say, it was a late evening.  Gracie conked out as soon as we left the parking lot, but Isaac made it a little further -- past the windmills that have the red blinking lights at night so the airplanes can see them. :)

I love the conversations we have with Isaac in the car -- what we see outside or random things that flow through his sharp little mind at any given point.  But soon he grew really quiet and I knew he was getting sleepy, so I looked back at him and he said, "Mommy wanna hold my hand?"

Melt.  My.  Heart.  

"I would LOVE to hold your hand!"  So I reached back as far as I could to hold his hand until I was certain he was asleep...and so was my hand and lower arm at that point from resting on the armrest of his car seat.  I love that he is so affectionate and cuddly toward his mommy.  He still likes to rock and sing at night before bed, and it's such an honor to me that I can give him a little extra security or comfort to fall asleep just by being close.  I know it won't last too much longer, but it sure does make a mommy feel special.  But then again, both my kids have a knack for making this mommy feel special in a hundred different ways.  Praise be to God alone for the blessing of my children!

Other fun moments from the weekend...

Isaac ate the biggest strawberry I have ever seen!

My sweet Gracie, runny nose and all.

Pushing Elmo in the stroller around the living room.

Working on my $1 garage sale find.  Ignore the cluttered garage.

Transitioning to a sippy cup!  What a big girl!

Matt reading a book about animals and bugs to Isaac.

Daddy and Isaac about to look for ants (like the ants they read about).

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Tonight we took our kids to the high school softball and baseball games.  Isaac loves all things sports.  Already.  At 2 1/2 years old.  And he seems to especially love baseball lately.  Ever since baseball ended with the World Series last season, he's been waiting to watch baseball again.  So we got half price burgers at Sonic and headed to the ball fields!

The weather was beautiful for a couple of hometown ball games!  We've had a few days of dreary weather with high winds and I was ready for some sunshine.  And our little guy was eager to get outside and play for as long as he could.  Last night, I sat in the car with Gracie since it was too cold, while Matt played outside with Isaac at the local elementary school playground.

What a great daddy he is!  He grabbed Isaac's bat and ball out of the car and taught him how to hold the bat.  You can see the determination on his face!  Tongue sticking out and everything!

 

Then tonight he had a chance to use his new skills at the ball field!  Isaac wanted to play in the grassy field behind the bleachers, and before long he was playing in a game of baseball with a couple of elementary age boys from our church.  With Daddy's help, Isaac hit three straight home runs!!!  I was so proud of my little guy...and proud of those boys for adapting their game to allow a 2 1/2 year old to feel like one of the "big boys."

Birthday

I turned 30 today.  I never thought I would think twice about turning 30, but what is it about changing the first digit in your age that makes you evaluate your life?  In many ways, life is no where near what I thought it would look like at this point.  But in other ways, life is so much better than what I thought it would be.  I have a wonderful husband and two absolutely adorable, amazing children...all of whom keep my life fun and interesting.  And they are more of a blessing than I would ever think to ask of God. 

I don't know that I have ever really set myself goals to accomplish by the time I turned 30.  I think I pictured myself in better shape by this point.  But the biggest desire of my heart has pretty much always been to be a full-time, stay-at-home mom.  And God has graciously allowed that to me.  I look at some moms who have 10 year olds by this age, and my oldest is two and a half.  So I reckon I will still feel as young (and exhausted) as those 22 year olds who have the 2 year old children.  I'm just not sure my 30 year old energy level can compete with what I had at twenty-two.  :)

Nonetheless, it's been a good day.  Not much different.  I had some great memories from the 20s.  But I'm quite certain the 30s will hold just as many surprises and keepsakes as the last decade.  I still just hate the fact that I turned 30 before my husband.  He doesn't let me forget.  :)

Catch Up

Wow...it's been a while since I've updated the blog.  We have had an extremely busy few months it seems.  So I'll give you a quick catch up on what our lives have entailed since December.

Christmas was GREAT this year!  It was such a special time, having both Isaac and Gracie.  Because we are a family in full-time ministry, we weren't able to be with extended family on Christmas due to the fact it was on a Saturday and fell between the Christmas Even church service and Sunday morning worship service.  So Christmas was spent in our own little home with just the Fab Four.  At two and a half years old, Isaac really "got" the idea of opening Christmas presents this year.  He tore into his presents with such anticipation and excitement..."Thank you, Mommy, thank you!  Thank you, Daddy, thank you!"  But what did he like the best?  His stocking stuffers from Santa -- a matchbox NASA spaceship and a CARS color-changing Lightning McQueen and Sheriff!

Santa Claus came to our house this year and brought Isaac an easel.  I think the cutest line of the day was "Thank you, Santa Claus!" from Isaac about 10 times sporadically throughout the day.  Very polite!

Gracie seemed to like all the excitement as she was her usual happy self.  It was Gracie's first Christmas so we filmed the whole thing, only to later discover that we didn't take ANY still photos of her opening presents.  She really didn't open any...little brother was more than happy to help in that department.  But still...if anyone knows how to capture still photos from a video, let me know.


It was so much fun having two kids this year.  While we don't want to make it about the commercialism that so often encompasses the season, it was so much fun seeing the excitement and wonder in Isaac as he better understood everything this year.  This was the first year of "excitement for Christmas morning" from Isaac.  I remember being excited as a kid, now I'm the parent with the excited children.  Luckily the excitement didn't require us to wake up at 5am, but I'm sure that will come in the next couple of years. 

Here are some other pics of the day...

Gracie turned 6 months old February 18th.  She is getting so big and is such a joy to our family!  She smiles ALL the time and her laugh is contagious, just like her brother's.  Right about the time she turned 6 months old, she discovered she has a voice and that she could use it...LOUDLY.  She already has the little girl squeals that have a pitch of their own.  And she's recently started "talking."  Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh and mah-mah-mah-mah.  I like to think she's saying "brother" and "mama."  :)

She also started rolling over.  She doesn't roll over often, but she knows how.  She knows how to roll from her back to her tummy, but can't quite roll back the other way.

We also went through a period where Isaac was being really quiet and testy.  And after much worry and prayer, we figured out that he was going through a period of jealousy.  He's never gone through a period of jealousy and even then, he never displayed the slightest bit of anger toward Gracie.  But he was quite the little temper tantrum toward Mommy and Daddy.

But then Aunt Amber came to visit and held Gracie any time she could, which allowed Mommy to give Isaac some individualized attention.  (Cue angelic voices)!  So after some time with Mommy just to himself, Isaac returned to his normal, sweet, compliant self, much to this mommy's relief! 

Now this mommy needs some sleep!  Gracie has dealt with both an ear infection and acid reflux over the past month that has caused her to wake up every 2-3 hours every night.  Now we're trying to figure out if she is genuinely waking up due to discomfort or if she has gotten in a nice little habit of mommy coming in to her room to soothe her back to sleep.  Oy!