10 Years!

I have been really excited the past few weeks thinking about our ten year anniversary today. We are not taking any special trips this time or giving each other extravagant gifts. (We will have dinner and a night without kids tomorrow...well, maybe one very little kiddo :-)). But I have loved reflecting on how much God has done in these past ten years of marriage and the five years we were "together" before that. I feel so amazed and blessed to wake up each morning knowing I am loved more each day by a man who knows me better than any other person. And that together we have the privilege of watchingGod work in the lives of our children. (Okay, surface emotions may not always reflect those sentiments exactly, but they do fill the deepest part of my heart.). Thank you, David, for taking the chance to ask for my phone number fifteen years ago, and for making sure God was in our relationship from the start. Thank you for continuing to love me more than I deserve.  I am excited that I still have 90 plus years to know and love you better!

Re-entry can be rough

Our three little travellers just had a two-week visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house...without Mommy and Daddy.  They had so much fun going to VBS, visiting playgrounds, staying overnight at a water park, flying with Grandpa, and so much more!  There were a few special girl things at a Sleeping Beauty dinner theater and a tea house.  The boys visited the Air Force museum and toured a former Air Force One.

Then our young journeyers return home.  After so much fun and adventure packed into two weeks, it's no wonder there are a few bumps as they re-acclimate.  They are tired from all the excitement and travelling.  Though they are not without boundaries at Grandma and Grandpa's, things are different.  David and I jokingly call the time of re-entry "de-tox."  We know emotions are going to run higher.  We know there will, once again, be testing of boundaries.  This time has just been a little harder than we expected.

Our oldest traveler started a high fever the day before they were driving home.  But other than that, she has done amazingly.  There have not been more than a couple instances of testing or such.  She has done this enough times now to know how things go.

Our second, has had the most difficult time.  Today is only the fifth day since their return, but there has been significantly more turbulence than we anticipated.  We have seen A LOT of attitude for every little thing, along with many other bumps.  As I said, we expected some of this.  It happened last year.  But something else seems to be going on.  I've tried to work through the reasons.  This is a time of big changes for this one, historically and presently.  We are nearing the anniversary of our son going through the biggest changes of his young life.  He's starting to think about starting school and having a new sibling all in the next few weeks.  I know there is so much going on in his heart and in his head.  But it's hard not to take his actions and rejection personally.  And I'm not doing a very good job controlling my reactions.  Tonight I've been thinking through so many ways for both David and me to consciously give him more time and attention.

This was the first of such trips for our youngest, so we were not quite sure what to expect.  I was a little bit worried about how he would do for such a long time.  While away, it seemed like he barely noticed that we weren't there.  He did seem to return home with an ever-present whine in his little voice.  He's been quicker to tantrum and to cling.  But I think he is slowly starting to work out of those.

We are glad to have the kids home again.  Though it was nice to relax and rest for a time, the house and my days felt pretty empty.  We missed the hugs and snuggles and giggles.  We missed the kids. 

I am grateful they are able to go and enjoy special time with family.  I am grateful we have several weeks together before school and more craziness starts.  I am especially grateful for the example I have of my Heavenly Father who loves me as I am...even with my testing, whining, rejection, tantrums, and attitude.  Praying He'll help me love the same way.

Snow Days

Yesterday and today have been snow days.  We got maybe three inches of snow yesterday, but it came down pretty quickly in the beginning.  I felt kind of bad.  We never made it out to play in the snow yesterday.  David was home, but he put in a full day of work and took two finals for his classes.  I just didn't have the energy to take the three kids outside while it was 20 degrees and below.  We did finally get our Christmas tree decorated.  Elizabeth and Josiah were very excited to go through our huge tote of ornaments and see which ones they recognized.  I think Josiah was a bit disappointed that he didn't have as many ornaments as Elizabeth.  Isaac got in on the action, trying to put ornaments on the tree.  Unfortunately, I was just trying to manage chaos, so I didn't get any pictures.  Elizabeth made some cards and wrapped presents for her school teachers.  We started working on some pipe cleaner and bead ornaments, and we still need to complete those.

Today, Elizabeth was disappointed that school was closed again.  It would have been her last day before Christmas break, so she missed her party and giving presents to her teachers.  But she and Josiah have been doing a good job playing.  We made it outside today!  Elizabeth, Josiah, and I went out while Isaac was napping.  It was helpful that the temperature was up to almost 40 degrees.  :-)  We haven't managed to get a good sled yet, so the kids tried sledding on a cardboard box.  It was pretty funny.  At some point, Josiah just decided it was easier to go down on his bottom.

Notice the pink mittens?  Guess we still need to get him new snow gloves, too :-)

Wipe out!

I think we're going to need to go to the store in a bit.  We're low on a lot of foods, and we still have a few gifts we need to pick up for this weekend.  Tomorrow, we'll celebrate Christmas a little bit early with some of David's family. 

Happy Snow Day! :-)

More pictures

Some pics of the kids playing today :-) 

Isaac was given a tent with a tunnel for his birthday, and the kids have had a lot of fun with it.

Elizabeth in the tunnel

 Isaac looking out the door

 

Sometimes Daddy's just a big kid, too!

Daddy, Isaac, and Elizabeth in the tent.

Kisses!

Hmmm....

Three kids coming down the slide with scary glowing eyes

Cousin AJ, VBS, and a day at the beach

We had a fun, busy week around here last week!  Our nephew down so he could come to Vacation Bible School and spend some time with the kids.  It's always interesting to watch how the dynamics of playtime with the addition of a new child.  A.J. is 11 months older than Elizabeth, so we had a male oldest child for the week.  The change was very obvious while listening to the kids' imaginative play :-) 

V.B.S. was from 6-8pm Sunday to Thursday.  All the kids enjoyed it!  They made some new friends and did a great job learning memory verses each day ;-)  Isaac was spoiled  loved on constantly by nursery helpers.  David and I "lead" the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  Though I think some nights we were just running to keep up!  Thursday evening closed V.B.S. with a carnival including a moon bounce, super slide, popcorn, cotton candy, and lots of fun! 

The kids and I mostly stayed home during the day, though we did venture out to Wal-mart and Sam's for lunch and some shopping on Tuesday.  Thursday I decided to brave the beach with the four kids.  We have a great lake near us where one of the swimming areas is pretty shallow.  As in the lifeguard SITS in the water at the deepest part.  Oh yeah, and knowing there would be a lifeguard boosted my confidence.  One other fun thing about this beach is that it's directly under the landing path for our small airport.  So, my airplane loving boy can watch all the planes he wants!  I'm glad we went.  The kids had a lot of fun.  We had to rush home to take showers, and all the kids fell asleep on the way to V.B.S., but it was worth it.

I've been doing a terrible job taking pictures lately, but I did remember to get some at the beach!  Enjoy!

July 4th

We are thankful to live in a great country.  We are even more thankful to live for a greater God! 

Father, shower your blessings down on our nation so we may use them for You. 

Bring us back to the place where we are "one nation under God".

Eating Corn

(okay, I'm going backwards)

Saturday, between storms, David grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, and corn for dinner!  Yummy!  There are a lot of different methods recommended online for grilling corn on the cob.  We chose to go with the simplest.  Place the corn on the grill.  We didn't peel back the husk.  We didn't soak it.  And the corn was amazing!  David did a great job!

Josiah enjoyed his corn on the cob with butter and parmesan cheese.

Isaac had some fun trying to nibble off some of the kernels, but he really liked gnawing on the empty cob.

Two loose front teeth made it difficult for Elizabeth to eat the corn, so she had cut corn. 

This is her bread tongue.

Cherries!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I've posted!  :-p  I have missed so much on here.  I feel like I have writer's block so much of the time.  But I'll start with something recent, and hopefully that will be the jolt I need to get back to blogging.

This past Sunday, between two days of fun picnics with friends, we headed down the road a bit to find a cherry orchard!  We are so blessed to have several orchards around here that allow you to pick your own fruit...strawberries, cherries, peaches, apples.  None of us have been cherry picking before, so this was a first for all of us!  :-)  David decided to follow his GPS rather than the directions from the orchard.  It made for an interesting trip...we got to see part of the county we haven't seen before.  Josiah was a little worried when we started on the gravel road up the mountain, and he told David he needed to turn around.  But we made it up and down the mountain without any problem.  We slathered on the sunscreen and headed into the trees to pick and eat sweet cherries.

View from the orchard!  BEAUTIFUL!

We were a little surprised at how family friendly it was!  It was nice to not have to bend down to the ground, as we would for strawberries, and the tree branches were low enough the kids were able to reach cherries on their own. 

Even Isaac tried.  We had to stop several times to pick leaves out of his mouth. :-) 

The kids were thrilled to see a bird's nest where one of the tree trunks began to branch out.  It was not even three feet off the ground!

Of course, we all enjoyed eating the cherries as we were picking.  They were so juicy and sweet!

Even with all the cherry snitching, we still walked away with over six pounds of cherries!  Next time we'll think ahead and leave the stems on most of the fruit, so they last longer ;-)

I think this will definitely become a yearly tradition!

Welcome to March!

March is shaping up to be a pretty busy month around our house.  :-)  Enjoy pics from the first week.

3/1/10

Elizabeth started her second session of ice skating lessons today, and Josiah started his first!  We were so proud of both of them.  This was Josiah's first time in skates and first time on the ice ever!  He fell.  A LOT!  But he did a great job of getting right back up with a smile on his face and plowing full steam ahead.  Elizabeth started out by going to the wrong class, but told the teacher and happily moved over.  She is getting to be so mature.  Isaac got to watch.

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3/2/10

I decided I was going to try to give Elizabeth a haircut after school today.  It's been over 18 months since she's had a haircut.  She is trying to grow it out to donate, but the ends needed some attention.  I've been too lazy scared to find a new hair stylist.  Not sure why I thought me cutting her hair was a better idea, though.  She was a little leary at first and said she'd rather have Mr. Gareth cut her hair :-)  (She asked for the bangs.)

Before

                                                         

Ready!

Finished!

You will share your soda with me!

 

Handsome boy!

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3/3/10

Sit    

Lean

Tuck

Roll

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3/4/10

Morning snuggle time with the boys.  Josiah watches cartoons.  Isaac watches Josiah.

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3/5/10

Watching my babies in the rearview mirror.  (I was parked, don't worry!)

The view each day as I leave my house.  (Maybe worry a little.  I was driving ;-))

I look at both of those pictures and just think, "God, You are an amazing Creator!"

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3/6/10

Maryland basketball at UVA!  YAY Terps!!!

The kids all did great!  They cheered on Daddy's team.  They had no complaints about all the walking...all the way to the top of the arena.  Poor Isaac was exhausted, but scared over and over again with all the noise.  But it was a fun game.  Probably a third of the fans were for Maryland, so both teams received loud cheering.  It was a fun way to end the week!