Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Losing Teeth

I thought this was so funny and wanted to remember it. Tristan lost his fourth tooth yesterday when Gavin through his cup at him. The cup hit Tristan's loose tooth and knocked the tooth out! I thought this was so funny and so did the boys. Tristan actually said that was a much better way to loose a tooth rather than mom or dad pulling it.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

With Every Baby Comes a Loaf of Bread

This is a saying my mother in law told me several years ago and I treasure the words to this day especially when we find out we are having another baby! Yes we are expecting number five and we are all so excited. The ETA of this baby is June 9, 2011.
I love these words because it speaks to so many concerns when allowing God the opportunity to bless you with another little blessing. There are so many excuses that can keep us from taking the leap of faith and conceiving another baby. Some of those things are money, time, energy, lack of resources, lack of patience, to busy, to crazy, to messy, can't keep up. You name it I have said it to myself and have heard many other people say it as well. Thankfully as in exercising or training for a marathon you grow a little at a time. You are pushed a little further each day you train. The process with children begins with the pregnancy. The exhaustion, sickness, uncomfortableness, the pain, the varicose veins, the indigestion and whatever else you may face in your pregnancy. These are little acts of love through suffering that are preparing your heart for a new little person that will rock your world. For the funny, the bad, the ugly, the messy and mostly the wonderful each new little baby totally rocks my world. If I thought any differently I would be deceiving myself. The baby comes and the grace comes and your heart grows and stretches a little more each day. Everything stretches to the point that you look back after having your fifth baby and four seems super easy now. Yes five seems insanely crazy right now and you can't keep up with anything, but heck four is a breeze now. Take one away for a day and leave me with four and I have a break!

Lets step back for a minute when I had 1 I was 100% full and gave all that I had and thought there was nothing more within me left to give. No more patience, love, time, energy and no more money, but then sweet little two was conceived and the process began the grace began to flow, the grace did not come before we conceived but after and continues to flow from that point as it is needed. So two comes and wow does one child seem so easy because you are expanding and growing because of the grace of God. I think the grace of God is so evident in openness to life and having more children because I look at women with eight and ten children and I really believe it is not humanly possible and that is why there are so few people who take that leap so many times. They are having to rely heavily on God because their capacity is so limited. It all seems so unexplainable humanly speaking because the woman with one is 100% full and the woman with ten is the exact same. It is only explainable by the grace of God. He will always give the grace so take the leap when he is asking. I am not saying every family has to have a brood of 10, but I am saying God does have a number for each family and this is such an important area to listen and to put aside our worries and trust that if he asks us to bring another life into this world the grace will only come after we say yes after we take the leap.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Tristan's Football





Tristan played football this year and loved it! He wanted to try every sport and he has now tried soccer, basketball and football. He loves everyone of them. He is best at soccer, but good at the other two as well. In football this year he for some reason was two years younger than everyone else. We still haven't figured that one out, but it worked and it made him better and made him have to work harder! Gavin loves football and can't wait to get out there. Going to the games is always fun for all of us. Sometimes I think my kids like the snacks after the game more than the actual game itself or the sport.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

St. Simons 2010

We went on vacation to St. Simons Island two weeks ago and had a blast as always. Thanks to Branden's grandparents that have a condo down there we are able to go every year and have a wonderful time every year. Every year we take lots of bike rides, spend a ton of time at the beach, spend time at the boardwalk, play on playgrounds putt putt golf, swim swim and more swimming and eat lots of ice cream. This year I started morning dates with the kids and I would wake up with each one of them before everyone else and take them to get a donut and then go for a walk on the beach to get shells. This was a wonderful experience and a great way to take advantage of having Branden there to watch the other kids. They loved it and I did to. I see my kids in a whole new light when there are by themselves. I love it! This year was Finnians first year at the beach and he loved it! He spent a lot of time in the wagon he would sleep and eat in there on the beach and sometimes just hang out because he wanted to. I love our wagon! He was adorable on the beach he loved the water and loved to eat the sand. Annaliese and Tristan did not want to every come out of the water. They would stay in the ocean until we dragged them out. They loved catching waves on boogie boards and learning to dive through them with Branden. Branden is loving it because all he likes to do is play and have fun and now are kids are able to do that with him. They would call the big waves "big dogs" and the little ones were "little winkies". Don't know who came up with the names but by the end of the week we were trying to go to the beach at the perfect time to catch the big dogs. We also flew Brandens kite made sand castle on the beach and big deep holes. The kids love making moats and every year we make a monkey town USA. Oh and Gavin not the biggest fan of the water, but so good when we were out there. All he wanted to do was eat when we were at the beach.