Spring

I can't believe my last post was about Christmas and here we are four months later! A lot has happened. I'm almost 20 weeks pregnant with our fourth little one. It's been so fun to recently be able to consistently feel this sweet one move. Seth just started feeling the baby kick too! It's such a comfort and I treasure each kick. I pray the Lord will continue to bless this pregnancy and we will be able to meet this precious baby mid-September. This time we won't know whether this little one is a boy or a girl until that time, we're excited to have the surprise!

Life has been crazy, but I feel like I've started to be able to get back into somewhat of a routine after feeling sick and tired a lot of my first trimester. Landon and Olivia are growing so fast, I sometimes wish I could just pause time and enjoy them longer at each stage, but time just keeps going. Landon will be four in ten days. I can hardly believe it! He is becoming more and more independent, and being able to help around the house. He just learned how to swing all by himself and is out on the swing almost every chance he can get. Olivia wants to do everything Landon is doing. She loves to read books, especially Good Night Moon, "Goodbye Moon" as she calls it :)

We have been enjoying spending time with Seth's aunt Donna. She was diagnosed with ALS last summer and came to live with his parents here in Tulsa back in November. She has such a joyful spirit through this all and we love her so much. Pray for her if you think of it. She is now bed-ridden but is able to communicate via iPad, but it is getting more difficult for her.

We had an eventful month of March as we had termites, rotted wood under the toilet, reconstruction in the bathroom (that we are still doing... cant't wait to get our toilet back in there!) and two sets of visitors. I'm so glad our visitors weren't deterred by our construction mess - we had so much fun! First, my sister, two good friends, my sweet niece and my friend's two boys came to visit. They did so much work while they were here, it was so sweet of them! We redid my fireplace which totally makes my living room look like a new place! They also helped paint our bathroom which was also in desperate need of attention. I so appreciate such good family and friends and it was so sweet to spend time with them as I don't see them often enough.

Our next set of visitors was my brother, Alan, sister-in-law Lauren, and darling nieces Nora, Gillian, and Aubrey. The kids had a blast playing with each other and we even got to celebrate Nora's 6th birthday together. I so appreciated Lauren's help with picking out tile and ideas for decorating. We had such a great time together and sweet memories were made.

We had a nice Easter this year. The kids had a blast Easter egg hunting. They also loved learning about the resurrection story using the Resurrection Eggs.

Enjoying this spring and looking forward to this summer :)

Christmas Recap

We had a great christmas with both families. This was the first year we stayed in Tulsa since we've been married. Seth's aunt Donna is staying with Seth's parents right now. Unfortunately, Donna and Seth's mom were both sick on Christmas Eve, so we stopped in for a short visit, but let them rest up. We had a great Christmas Eve with Justin and April and the kids. We made chocolate dipped marshmallows with the kids. Then the kids watched "Elf" and the adults played Spades. We hadn't played cards in so long, it was so much fun to play and laugh.


Christmas morning was so much fun. We had to wake the kids up since it was Sunday and we wanted to open presents before going to church. Landon was so excited to open his stocking and presents. It was so much fun to see his joy :) Olivia had fun opening the presents, but didn't really get what was going on. Her favorite presents were her Tea Pot, dolly, musical book and bear. Landon's favorite gifts were his stand up sand box, shark car toy, lego Thomas and all the little legos :) I got a coupon from Build-A-Bear for a free bear and Seth and I decided to go as a family to pick out a bear "from Samuel" for the kids. I think this is going to be our new Christmas tradition. Landon named the bear, "Cucumber" :)


We had cinnamon rolls and just overall had a nice morning together. After church, we went over to Seth's parents since they were feeling a little better. We watched the Thunder game and had a yummy dinner together. It was very relaxing and just nice to be together.

The next weekend, all of Seth's family came into town. We had so much fun laughing and spending time together. Seth's parents went crazy for Christmas, and I got a guitar! I'm super excited about learning to play. The kids love to come and help me strum while I learn. We had some nice big boxes from all the loot so the kids decorated them and had a great time playing house in them.






We also celebrated Camryn's 8th birthday with a pinata and a cake that she decorated with melted chocolate and Andes mint chips. It was such a sweet time.


This last weekend, we made it up to Iowa for our last celebrations. We traveled through the night getting in at 4am on Friday. This worked out really well with the kids. Landon slept from 9pm-8am and Olivia was up for a couple hours on the trip and woke up again when we got there, but overall did great. On Saturday we had almost the entire family together, minus two husbands. We ordered pizza and just had a nice day together. We watched some old home movies which had us all laughing and some blushing :) We had such a wonderful childhood, it was so fun to look back and remember.


I loved holding my precious two month old niece. She was really smiling and almost laughing, it was hard to leave her!


Sad to see things come to an end, but sweet memories were made. It's a new year now and I'm excited to see what the Lord has for us this 2012.

Menu

Breakfasts:
Crepes
Blender Pancakes
Baked Oatmeal
Yogurt Parfaits

Dinners:
Smoky Yukon Gold Chowder with bread and salad
Sesame Soba Noodles
Chicken Enchilada Pasta with chips and salsa
Spinach Rice Casserole with salad
Creamy Chicken Taquitos with black beans
Warm Barbecue Chicken Salad with Texas Toast

House stuff and Menu

This is not a very complete menu plan, but it will get us through the week. So excited to have new carpet in our living room! Poor Seth though is so allergic to new carpet... His throat swells and he gets a bad headache. So tonight we're sleeping with the windows open. Thankfully, it is a pretty nice night!

The new carpet motivated me to re-do (pretty much just painted it) an old trunk that I found at a garage sale over the summer for $3.00. I was pretty excited! I decided it works great as a TV stand in our new carpeted living room :) What do you think? Should I paint the whole thing white, should I rough it up with a little sandpaper?





Anyway, I better get to bed, it is getting late...

Here is our menu for the week:
Breakfasts
Granola Bars
Pumpkin Muffins with fruit
Whatever we find in the cupboards and freezer :)

Dinners:
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken over pasta
Whole Grain Chicken Soup with Rice

Chicken Lo Mein
Bean and Beef Burritos

Calzones

Menu and Update on Life

My hopes are my weekly menu posts will remind me that I still have a blog and to post more frequently on it... For now, I will just give an after midnight rambling, sort of update on our lives. The kiddos are growing so fast! Olivia is finally taking steps! I think the most she's taken is seven, but she still prefers to crawl. I think she just walks to get us excited :) Oh well, hopefully she will take off soon!

Landon's Thomas the train obsession is starting to diminish and the "tiny legos" are starting to take that place of love in his life. I don't know why this is a little sad for me. I knew this would happen, interests change, they grow, but I guess it just means that that part of his childhood is becoming history. Soon it will be, "remember when you loved Thomas the train?" and there will be more and more of those, "remember when"s. I just really want to treasure their childhood and not miss it being too focused on how shiny my floors are, or getting too caught up on whether or not I can walk through the living room, or re-do my fireplace :)

I loved Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Blessings." It is such a good reminder to take notice of the tremendous blessings we have right in front of our noses. The car rides with lively voices, the smell of a candle, quite reading time with the older child while the other naps. We have so many sweet blessings around us if only we stop to take notice and remember to thank our Father for each one.

Ephesians 1:3

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ"

Breakfasts:
Baked Apple Oatmeal
Cinnamon Rolls
Cold Cereal with fruit
Smoothies and Toast
Yogurt Parfaits

Dinners:
R: Chicken Pot Pie
F: Pasta with White bean Sauce
S:Golden Veggie Fried Rice with stir fried vegetables
S: Easy Barbecue Chicken sandwiches
M: Chicken Parmesan Casserole with salad (didn't get to this last week)
T: Creamy Vegetable Chowder
W: Homemade Pizza with salad

Menu for the week

Wow, life has been just a bit crazy! In the midst of moving, house projects, going to Iowa, celebrating Thanksgiving, chasing after the kids (and their messes), and church activities, I need a little bit of structure in my life. So, here is my menu plan for the week. I usually like to do it on Mondays, but I thnk shopping is going to work out better to do on Thursdays. So, I'm going to try to start doing a Thursday-Wednesday menu. We will see how it goes :)

Thursday: Turkey (free from Seth's work - I need cook that thing!), Potatoes
Friday: Calzones with Salad
Saturday: Crispy Southwest Chicken wraps with Mexican rice
Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Potato Salad
Monday: Chicken Parmesan Casserole Bread, Salad
Tuesday: Vegetable Chowder
Wednesday: Homemade Pizza with a salad

Samuel's 5th Birthday

We "celebrated" Samuel's birthday today, the fifth time we've done so without him. Even though it is so hard to not have him here, and the memories of those few days are still as vivid as the days themselves were... the Lord is so good through it all.

On Wednesday, my sweet friend, Anne, brought us a cake for Samuel's birthday. It was such a thoughtful gift that meant so much to us all... That cake was amazing by the way! I'm sure Samuel would have loved it with all the Oreo goodness crumbled over everything, I know we all did :)

Today, was a bitter-sweet day. The day, five years ago, when we held our sweet son while his little life slipped away. I never would have thought that there would be any "sweet" in this day, but there was...

Over lunch we sang happy birthday to Samuel and opened the present we had got "for Samuel." Landon really wanted to get him a James train. There are two reasons for this, because James is the #5 train and Samuel is turning 5; and Samuel's middle name is James. So, we picked one up the other day at Landon's favorite toy store and had it wrapped for today. It was bitter-sweet watching Landon open it and see his excitement over "Samuel's" toy.


My other dear friend, Brooke, offered to watch the kids for a little while today. One thing I had really been wanting to do was to write a song for Samuel. Our piano is not in working order, so I knew this probably wouldn't be possible. So, when Brooke offered, I took her up on it, and I went to our church to play. Music is therapy for me and it was so healing to play the piano that I have rarely played over the last couple of years. The Lord had been laying a few verses on my heart from 1 Thes. 4 and 5 and He gave me words from those verses to help me write a song. I never would have imagined to do this in the couple hours that I had, but the Lord loves to give us good gifts and that's what this was, directly from Him. He is so good. I love Him.

After this, I picked up the kids and Brooke gave me a package. I opened it later to find an incredible gift that I can't express how much meant to our family. She had written a children's book called, "Samuel Takes a Trip." It is about Samuel going to heaven from his perspective and it even has a page at the end explaining the gospel for anyone that wants to go to heaven, to be where Samuel is. Words just can't express how much this meant to us...


We picked up 6 balloons (5 to release and 1 for Landon) and then headed to the cemetery. We found five more balloons waiting there :) what a sweet surprise. Landon was happy to help release both sets. We brought the book and James. It was a bitter-sweet time. Remembering the cold day that we laid our sweet son to rest here five years ago, how could it be five years ago? Today wasn't cold though, it was perfect and the sun was setting, coloring the sky with all sorts of beautiful colors. We visited Samuel's aunt Beverly's resting place as well and wondered what they were both doing in heaven right now...


We left the cemetery and went to Steak N' Shake, our tradition that officially started last year :) It was really nice apart from Olivia being at a very difficult stage as far as not wanting to stay in one place. I saw a little boy who looked about 5 in the booth right across from us. He had brown hair and brown eyes and looked very similar to how I've always pictured Samuel. Another bitter-sweet moment.

That was that, another October 14th that has come and gone. To most, just an ordinary day, but to us it will never be just any day.

I wish, but I know...

I wish I could celebrate five years on earth with you today
I wish I could buy you your favorite toy
I wish I could watch you blow out your candles
I wish I could hug you and tell you, happy birthday, my sweet Samuel

But I know you don’t wish any of these things, because where you are, is so much better than here. There are no tears, there’s no death, and no pain where you are. There is only rejoicing and sweet fellowship with our Lord.

I wish I could know if your eyes were blue or brown
I wish I could have known if you would be shy or loud
I wish I could have taught you how to ride a bicycle
I wish daddy could have taught you how to shoot a basketball

But I know you don’t wish any of these things, because where you are, is so much better than here. Beautiful streets of gold, no need of light as the glory of God gives heaven its light and the Lamb of God is heaven’s lamp.

I wish you could know your brother and sister
I wish our family could all be together
I wish that this pain would all go away
I wish I could see you again one day

And I know that you know, one day these things will come to be, because we will all be where you already are. We will see our Lord face to face and the place He’s prepared. I can’t wait for that day. The day we will all be home where you already are.

Happy 5th Birthday Samuel!

Love, Mom

God's Sovereignty

I am studying Acts this year in my BSF class and it has been powerful. Last week we studied Stephen and there are a few things that have really struck me and I needed to process. Since I am a verbal processor, I am going to try to process this here :)

Stephen was a truly remarkable man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom. Chosen by God and the apostles to ensure the care of widows along with other necessary tasks.

He delivered an amazing message, before the Sanhedrin, from the time of God's promise to Abraham to God's deliverance of the children of Israel and to the rejection of Christ by the very men he was speaking to.

Then, this remarkable man, was stoned to death by men who falsely accused him. Stephen, even at the end was asking the Lord not to hold this sin against these men.

It seems that a man like this could be used greatly for several years beyond this to spread God's word and reach many people for Christ.

But he wasn't... He was killed. Yet, God is sovereign.

God knew that Stephen's testimony would leave an incredible impact on those who stoned him, on the believers (at that time and even now!), and on Saul (later to become Paul).

This passage brings me comfort as I remember and miss our sweet Samuel. Sometimes I wonder what his little life would have been like. What kind of man would he have become? What kind of impact who he have had on people? As I process this story of Stephen, it is a powerful reminder that God is sovereign and He can even use the most horrible events for His glory and to bring others to Christ.

One last thing I noticed through the horror of Stephen's death, was that God is gracious. God revealed Himself to Stephen before he died. As the stones were striking and bruising his flesh, he saw the glory of the Lord - "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" (Acts 7:55) What a sight and a help to Stephen to endure the pain, gazing at the one whom he was suffering for.

Let us live out Hebrews 12:2 in our own lives:
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God"

Olivia is One!

A little late on this... but keeping up with a three year old and a one year old is very busy and difficult to find the time to sit down and blog (as many of you know).



On August 12th, Olivia turned one year old. I can't believe how fast this year has gone! This little girl had two birthday parties. Her first one was a combined party with her cousin, Aubrey, who was born just nine days before her. She didn't really like her first taste of cake, but had so much fun with all her cousins on my side of the family.





Her second party was also a combined party with her cousin Finn, who was turning four years old!



Here is a poor attempt at a doggie cupcake, but she really liked it :) She is so into dogs right now, it is so fun to see how excited she gets when she sees or hears one.



She didn't really care for the cake the second time either...



But Finn (and the rest of us) sure did!



She prefers spaghetti... and she likes to pretty much cover herself in it :)



Here is something she is always doing. She says, "please, please, please" over and over and points at something, and we're trying to teach her to say it nicely:



She loves going outside. If one of us goes out, she darts for the door. Before we completely figured this out, we knocked her over a few times coming back inside, poor girl!



One of her favorite things to do right now is climb the slide and let herself go down backwards. She loves it and does it over and over again.



Some facts on Olivia at one year old:

Weight:18lb 6 oz
Height: 29.5"
Diapers: Size 3
Clothes: 12-18 months
Sleeping patterns: Usually two naps a day, and still sleeping all night.

- She loves any animals and practically jumps out of our arms when she sees a dog.

- She is still not walking, but will walk along the wall and push chairs around. She's just scared.

- Favorite foods: Rice, spaghetti, any pasta, bananas ("nanny" as she calls them), grapes, blueberries, oatmeal, and yogurt.'

- Favorite things: She loves her bear and calls it, "beh, beh." She also loves her doggies and her glow worm.

- She likes signing time and is starting to learn some signs (play, please, more, all done)

- She is talking up a storm saying: mommy, daddy, bubby, done, nanny, bumpa, poppy, mamaw, play, please, Sophie ("ophie"), mmm (after she eats/drinks something her likes), and puppets lots of words. It's so fun to see how excited she gets when she says something we ask her to.

- She loves the outdoors, she would stay out there all day if I let her.

- She loves music and hums when I sing to her :)

I love this girl and am so thankful for the year the Lord has allowed me to have with her and look forward to seeing her continue to grow and learn.

Summer 2011

I'm a little behind on posting here! This summer has been crazy busy, but we have been having a blast. We went to Iowa for the annual 4th of July conference to see family and friends then stopped in Kansas for a couple days to spend time with family. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. So many wonderful memories made. A few funny little moments I want to remember:

When we told Landon we were going to take him down to the see the lake at camp, he said, "the lake of fire?"

Landon stacked a bunch of cushions and put an inner tube on top and said, "Look, mommy, it's an alter!"

A kid at camp said about Olivia, "Oh, she already lost a tooth!" (pointing at her huge gap between her teeth)

Here is Olivia at 10 months:



She learned to point and say a few more words: Papa, Bumpa, & Ball.
She also got her first four teeth over one weekend!
She goes crazy over dogs - just laughs and laughs over a picture, movie or her favorite, a real dog!



Here she is with her aunt Bekah (she can't wait to meet cousin due in November!) and Nanny


They were both really excited about riding a real horse!


Here is Mamaw with Olivia and Zoey



First sparkler - he was so excited!



Sidewalk caulk with all the cousins...



Then... Olivia turned 11 months! I can't believe she is almost a year old!



She learned a few more new words: Landon, Doggie, "row, row, row" (for "row, row, row your boat"), "please", "pop, pop" for fireworks, and the one I wish she hadn't learned, "NO!" :)
She's not really close to walking yet. I let go of her and she stood around 9 months and it scared her so bad, she puts her legs up when I try to have her stand now, oh well, all in her own time.
I love this age though, she is learning so much and her little personality is really coming out.

Daniel

Today, I found out some very sad news. This sweet crazy boy in the front of this picture, Daniel, passed into eternity on Saturday. He was one who had been coming to the Joshua Club (an outreach that we are involved in) from the time it started which is a little over two years. He heard the gospel several times and I remember a couple times when the gospel was being presented that he said, "I believe!" He had also said things that seemed like he was confused, hearing so many different things from other people. I pray that he is with our Lord now and that he didn't put off the decision to believe on the Lord Jesus. His parents called and said that Joshua Club meant a lot to him and asked a couple of the guys involved if they would be willing to share at the memorial service. Pray that the gospel would be clearly presented and that this will really be an opportunity to share the Lord with his family and the other kids that come to Joshua Club.



This is such a reminder that we don't know when will be the last time to share with a loved one the gospel of the Lord Jesus. May this be a reminder to all of us that our time is short and to take every opportunity that the Lord gives us to share his love and the free gift He offers to all - the gift of Himself, forgiveness of sins through His death on the cross, and eternal life with Him.

Landon is Three!

Landon is now three years old! These last three years have gone by so fast, and time seems to be speeding up! I am trying so hard to slow down and take in the sweet moments with my little Landon John before he grows up on me. I love that he still likes to snuggle and give me hugs and kisses. I love that he still likes me to help him with things and always wants me to play with him. I just love this sweet little blessing the Lord has lent to me.

Just how did he go from our sweet little baby...



To our adorable little one year old...



To our crazy two year old...



To our grown up little three year old? It seriously feels like yesterday in that delivery room laying eyes on our much anticipated, much prayed for little baby boy for the very first time. A moment I cannot put into words. Do you ever wish you could pause time or revisit a moment? That would be one of those moments. The day I finally got to hold and lay eyes on our sweet Landon. I'll never forget the way he looked deep into my eyes when he first heard my voice, like he already knew me, and he did of course, but it was truly amazing.



Now, this baby of ours is growing up and is all boy. Right now, this boy is still very into "Thomas" and any trains, so we had another train birthday party this year. He was very excited about his train cake...





He was so excited that his Nanny and Bumpa and uncle Josh came all the way from Iowa to come to his birthday party. We had such a nice time with them and were sad to see them go. He was so happy that Mamaw, Papa, Aunt April and cousins Layla, Finn, and Zoey could all come to his party as well. Landon was so excited about all his birthday presents. He received many trains including a Battery-powered James and a Spencer which he is very excited about, a Bullstrode the boat bath toy that pulls Thomas (so Thomas can be everywhere), a soccer ball, parachute guy, a take-n-go Thomas set (again so Thomas can go everywhere), and finally a train table complete with Tidmouth Shed. This boy is just a bit spoiled...



We are still working on the whole sharing thing. When other kids start to play with his trains, he usually starts grabbing any trains in reach and will hover over and hoard them. We are really working on this not being his first reaction... I pray this little boy of ours grows up to know the Lord and love Him with all his heart, soul, and mind.

Olivia at 9 Months

Olivia is now 9 months old! She is growing and changing so much.

Weight: 17lb 4oz (at the doctor's office, she had her third ear infection, poor girl)

Height: 29 inches

Diapers: Size 3

Clothes: Still 12 months

Sleeping patterns: Usually two naps a day, although she only took one today - hope that's not a new normal by any means!

- When she crawls, she likes to find any two little things, one for each hand, and crawl around with them. She will hold them forever, while she pulls up and does other things.

- She doesn't like baby food, I think it's a texture thing because she doesn't like applesauce by itself, but loves it on toast. Her appetite has really increased this month, I have been feeding her a lot more table foods and she loves about anything we are eating :) She got to try her first french fry the other day and really liked it.

- She got her first tooth finally a couple days after turning 9 months! I will be sad to see her gummy smile go. I'm guessing when I do her 10 month update she'll have all four front teeth - they are all just right there ready to pop out.

- She has said, "Ma ma" a few times. Every time she says it I'll grab my phone to record it and ask her to say, "Ma ma" then she'll say, "Da da" and smile - I think she has a sense of humor :)

- I love how she smiles with her eyes. She is always so happy and smiley.

- I love listening to her and Landon when I lay them down in the afternoon. She'll be talking and Landon will say something like, "say 'dada' " and she will say it, and then they both laugh. I just love seeing their bond develop.

- She was clapping at the Thunder game last Sunday, but won't do it again. I guess the excitement at the game was what she needed to get her to do it!