Three

Colin turned three last Friday.  He's big now, definitely not a baby.  We are so blessed to have this boy.  He brings so much laughter and joy to our family.  He loves his brothers and is very much a daddy's boy.  In fact, many times when I tell him that I love him, he says, "I wuv daddy".  I don't take it too personal.  He happens to be starting three on the wrong foot, with an attitude to big for his little body, but I'm sure he will come around.  How can I think otherwise when I'm staring at this face?!

We love our little three year old buddy!

For the love

I really do want to blog.  I want to post something at least once every couple of weeks.  I get on the computer and read everyone else's blogs.  I make mental notes of things I want to blog about.  Then I fail miserably to follow through.  But here I am and I'm resolving to do better. 

I'm going to try and cover some of what has happened since I last posted....3 months ago (for the love)!  This should be quick and painless but I just won't feel right about not at least mentioning some of this.  Deep breath, and: 

Evan had his 7th birthday. We celebrated our little hearts out, he deserved it. : : The 8th anniversary of Lauren's death came and went.  There were tears but there was also hope, I'm still learning this. : : Our newest little nephew, Silas, came and captured our hearts. : : We celebrated Easter. I made resurrection rolls with the boys. We colored eggs and had an egg hunt. We talked a lot about Jesus. : :  We went to the zoo. We went to the park. We picnicked. : : I worked at and shopped at the Children's Resale at the Wakarusa Missionary church. : : Jacob had his Kindergarten round up. He is so excited and so ready. : : Maple Syrup Festival, garage sale, library story time, more park, more picnics. : : Matt had his 32nd birthday. We celebrated our little hearts out, he deserved it. : : We planned a garden. : : We are in the middle of a landscape project. : : We are in the middle of a little kitchen makeover, which is making me want to do a whole house makeover. : : Matt and I managed to sneak away for the weekend sans kids. We should really do that more often. : : Parks, picnics, field trips.

I'm leaving one thing out. I did it on purpose, because it just can't be thrown into the mix with everything else.  Somewhere in the midst of all of these happenings (and many more), Evan and Jake gave their hearts to Jesus. I'm tearing up just writing about it now.  I'm so proud of them.  Evan made the decision first one night after our Bible story. I knew his heart was getting ready and that night he prayed and asked Jesus to live in his heart. After his prayer he looked down his shirt to talk to Jesus in his heart. Oh the faith of a child.  Jacob had a few more questions and waited a few weeks, but since his prayer I have noticed a real difference in his heart. As young as they are, I just don't think I expected much but I should have known better. Jesus is really working on, in and through my kids and I think it's awesome.

Coming soon: Evans new computer. Gardening. House face lift. Kitchen makeover. Colin's birthday (he'll be 3 on Friday!). Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. Stay tuned:)

*Friends are Friends Forever

We had so much fun this weekend with our dear friends, the Damaska's!  I think all the kids were plotting on how we could stay together longer.  Jacob suggested we stay for four weeks and when I said that we couldn't do that he thought two weeks was a fair compromise.  Unfortunately we couldn't do that either.  William made up a song about "the boys" staying longer.  Evan pulled out the pouty lip and used it in full force when it was time to go.  They just love to be together and since there are four hours between us, we don't get to see eachother as often as we'd like.  We are thankful for the time we do get though and it's always good and always crazy.  We love it! Thanks for the memories guys. We love you.

*Micheal W. Smith rocks!

Where has the time gone?

January sort of got away from me and now here we are in February!  Funny thing is, I still don't have much to say.  I hate when I leave my blog for this long.  It's always so hard to get back on track.

We have been keeping busy with all our usual stuff, plus I am starting to try to tackle a project everyday.  When I say project, I mean, clean out a drawer or wipe off a shelf in the bathroom I haven't wiped in 2 months.  So far I've cleaned out 4 cabinets, 2 drawers, and my pantry.  Not a bad start but I'm sure by the time I get through my list it will be time to start over again.

Colin has been a sick boy.  He started in with a cough and runny nose.  That quickly turned into croup and ended up having to go in to the doctors office to get a shot for that.  Now he is just a fevery-coughing-snotty mess.  Poor guy is just plain miserable!  Am I being unrealistic to hope that the rest of us escape this bug? 

Oh here is an interesting tid-bit.  When I took Colin to the doctor, I asked about why my boys tend to get croup when they catch a cold.  He said that some kids just have that tendency.  He said that there could be 100 kids with the same cold and three of them might get croup with it.  Unbelievable! Matt and I got ALL three of those kids!  We thought maybe we should start playing the lottery or something with all our luck:) 

I think I've rambled enough for today.  Happy Tuesday!

p.s.
I seemed to have lost the spell checker option for my posts.  Where did it go?  I can't spell so I hope you all can get through this without too much trouble:)

Bearing Rings

Love is in the air.  Matt's brother Chris and his fiance Rachelle got married yesterday.  It was a beautiful wedding, they are a beautiful couple, and they have pretty good taste in ring bearers. 

Evan did such a great job at the wedding and was the most handsome ring bearer I've ever come across!  The boys all had so much fun with all the festivities that come with a wedding in the family.  We are so glad that Chris found such a sweet girl with such a lovely family.  Rachelle has one sister and six brothers!  Chris fits right in with all the crazy fun they have.  We feel pretty lucky to be gaining Rachelle into our family too.

The boys all dressed up and ready to go!

Wedding party.

Our nephew Tyler looking awfully handsome!

Jacob and Daddy dancing at the reception.

Colin getting his groove on!  He was a total ham and everyone was impressed with his moves.

Evan and Tyler.

Congratulations Chris and Rachelle!  We love you and are so happy for both of you.

An award

Today I got a pleasant surprise while checking my blogs. The lovely Heather over at All A Flutter passed on a blog award to me. I'm flattered really. I don't get many awards these days so I'll take what I can get. :)

Along with this award, I'm supposed to reveal seven random things about me. Oh, boy!

1. When we got married, I was 19 and Matt was 21. We were practically babies!

2. In third grade we had to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I drew myself with a broom, and a baby. I wrote that I wanted to be a homemaker. I only wavered on that in middle school when, for a short time I wanted to be an O.B. nurse.

3. I love hearing birth stories! I secretly hope that someone (anyone at all) will ask me to be in the delivery room with them. I would love to be a labor coach.

4. I would choose pickles and olives (black or green) for a snack over cookies and brownies every time.

5. I hardly ever change CD's in the van or mess with the radio. I catch myself singing along to Veggie Tales a lot, when I'm driving...whithout any kids.

6. I love looking through cookbooks and cooking magazines, I love going grocery shopping but I DO NOT like cooking!

7. I'm not a picky eater at all. I like almost everything. The one thing that I have never liked was peanut butter.

Thanks Heather that was fun! Now I get to give this award to seven other bloggers!

Designer Mama

This Side of the Rainbow

This is my Life

Peanut Butter Jam

Handi Andi

Life as a Reimer

My Fuller Life

Family time

We had a great time over Christmas break. Matt had the week off between Christmas and New Years so we had tons of great family time. I'm convinced that the "stay cation" is the way to go. I'm sure this doesn't surprise anyone who knows me as the homebody I am.

The boys and I started out our break by making "white trash". We munched on it for the whole two weeks. You start with these,

mix it with this,

to create this yummy treat!

Warning: You may have to spread it out with your hand which will result in this,

but you can just enlist the help of an eager eater to do this,

Problem solved!

We had a great Christmas, celebrating with lots of family! We had four different family celebrations and then our family's' on Christmas morning.

Matt and I took the boys to see the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. They loved it and it was Colin's first movie in the theater. He did great! We also took them to see Sesame Street Live. It was super fun! We took Evan and Jake to see a Sesame Street Live show two years ago and decided that Colin would really enjoy it this year. We were right!

It was great to start out the new year coming off such an awesome family time. Happy 2010!