Lazy Saturday Morning & Andrew's Birthday!

Hanging out in our PJs and just playing around is one of our favorite ways to spend a Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we get to spend far to few Saturdays this way, but I guess that's what makes it so special!

Later, we went to Matthew's good friend Andrew's 3rd birthday party! How blessed we are to know the Stahnke's and what a joy it is to celebrate Andrew! He is quite a special little guy, oh so loveable! Happy Birthday, Andrew!!

Tell Tchaikovsky the News!

Nathan, at 5 months, is finally rolling over with regularity! I've taken to calling him my little "butterball" because he is just so easy going and content to hang out wherever we go. And speaking of "going" - he's not in a hurry to go anywhere! Yep, he's my little "butterball" and I'm enjoying these "stay right where I put you" days! Here are a few photos...

It's time for spring clean up in the yard. Mattthew loves going outside to help Daddy, and if Tim gives him some rope he'll be occupied for hours tying up everything in sight! (Beau would really like this if only it meant he'd get taken for a walk!)

Celebrating 60 years!

This spring is just blazing by and I can't believe how BUSY my life is as a stay at home mom! We recently celebrated my mom's 60th birthday with a party. My Dad and I worked together on all of the planning and we had a nice gathering at their house. We had lots of food, a quiz game, and a video made all to commorate the occasion. Unfortunately, amidst the craziness of hosting a party and caring for my sons, I forgot to take pictures for her to remember the evening by! (I needed about 6 more arms and then maybe a clone to get it all done!) Then when I finally remembered, I asked my mom's friend Joyce to go around and snap a few photos. She returned only a few moments later telling me that my batteries were dead! Good grief!! On my end, if I'm ever hosting this kind of party again, I will definitely do things differently - I'll get a baby sitter for all the kids, get a friend to help me in the kitchen, put someone in charge of photos, and make sure the camera batteries are charged!! Live and learn! But now that all is said and done, I do think that the party was very nice - I know my mom enjoyed this time with all of her and dad's friends. The pictures, however, are not so nice. I never even got a good shot of "the birthday girl!"

I'm so glad that many of my mom's friends came out to celebrate with her.

Sixty looks great on you, Mom! Happy Birthday! We love you!!!!

Afterglow

One of the things I so enjoy is spending time with young people. Combine that with my love for Jesus Christ, and you will find me serving, learning, and laughing with the teens from our church. Tim helps out with the guys and I with the girls. We recently had the kids over for an "afterglow" on a Sunday night. We enjoyed eating, talking, and playing ping pong ... and the kids even had fun playing with some of Matthew's toys! (We recently have been working on turning our old "office" into a play space for Matthew & Nathan. The basement is not fancy, but enjoy the pics nonetheless!)

The Rest of the Story

So if you read my last post about how we're "Enjoying every minute,"I would be remiss if I didn't include the following explanation as well. Lest I create a vision all too rosy, you need to know that we are often completely immersed (and sometimes totally submerged) in life with two kids! Some days, due to one accident or another, we're all in our 3rd set of clean clothes and it's only noon! Sometimes there are so many dirty clothes that I have to empty baskets part-way and carry them down to the washer in shifts. Sometimes the piles of clean laundry completely cover what used to be a ping pong table, but is now used for folding clothes. (We have played ping pong just once since Nathan's birth!) Sometimes the diaper genie and every trash can in the house are full to the top. The dishes to be washed are piled on the counter long enough that I feel like my kitchen is shrinking, and the mess of crumbs under Matthew's chair gets mixed in with the dog hair "tumbleweeds." Although you'd never know it by the look on my face, sometimes I'm secretly the slightest bit glad that little elbow knocked over the cup of orange juice because it means I have to stop everything and give the kitchen floor a good mopping when I've been wanting to get to it for weeks. Sometimes I have at least one boy making a racket while the oven timer goes off and the phone is ringing all at the same time. And just when I sit down after putting the boys down for their afternoon nap, the dog starts barking and wants me to get up and let him out.

Between making meals and keeping everyone clothed (and all that's involved with those two aspects of life), there is little time left over for anything else. I'm definitely a neat freak - things need to get put back in their places. My house isn't as clean as it used to be these days. It's not the way I'd like it most of the time, but these days don't last forever. I feel like I just climbed on one of my favorite rides at the amusement park: the safety harness is buckled and the ride has begun. It's mostly wonderful ... the thrill of ups and downs, the wind rushing by, beautiful sights, a few alarmed exclamations, but mostly happy sounds. It's such fun, and it will be over all too quickly. People told me that "your life just isn't your own" once you have kids, and I have really felt that to be true in taking the jump from one child to two. Let me tell you, when I hit the pillow at night, sleep comes quickly and is deep!

So just in case you read my last post and are starting think that I'm superhuman, I needed to give you "the rest of the story." I am not meaning to complain about these things, rather I'm so thankful that God has provided for our every need, and He has blessed us with much more. I have the most wonderful man alive for a husband! Its is a joy to share this crazy wonderful life with my best friend and the love of my life. We truly are so grateful for our two precious sons, and we know that these days only last so long ... so we're enjoying NEARLY every minute.

They sure go by quickly...

This short video clip says it all! :) Enjoy...

Enjoying Every Minute!

Yes, we are alive and well here in 2010! We haven't posted anything in far too long, so I just threw together a few photos from the last two weekends to share. It's March and I can't believe that this is my first post this year - good grief! As my list of things that I'd like to post about grows, (I have a list going of at least 8-10 posts from as far back as Thanksgiving! You could say things have really snowballed... I plan to do some postdated posts, but we'll see!) I figure I had better just get started somewhere so here goes...
Tim and I have been enjoying nearly every minute of life with our two precious boys. I am so busy soaking up this time in my life, that I'm finding little room for other things (like blogging). It is such a precious gift and opportunity to spend these days with Matthew and Nathan! We have so enjoyed the snow this winter. Tim and Matthew have been out several times to snowblow and play. They built this snowman the weekend before last. They've also been creative about sledding in our very flat back yard ... using the slide! Next year, when Nathan is bigger, I'm sure we'll get out to more exciting sledding hills.

One of my very favorite times of each day is NAP TIME! Sometimes even I take a nap, but my favorite part is sneaking in to the boys room to cover them up and admire my little "sleeping cuties." These little guys and the goodness of the God who brought us all together bring tears to my eyes. I thank God for the unique and wonderful way He has put our family together!

Nathan is growing and changing all the time. He is now 4.5 months old. I think he's showing more influence from my side of the family as he's gotten older (although I still see quite a bit of Tim in him as well). I'm always telling my dad that I think Nathan looks like him when he gets mad! (Only a daughter knows her dad's mad face so well, right?) Matthew continues to be my wonderful helper and a great big brother. He is so loving toward Nathan ... not always as gentle as I'd like, but boys will be boys.

Another favorite time is booktime before bed. Tim reads a story book and a Bible devotional with Matthew each night. Sometimes Nathan and I join them, depending on how Nathan's eating schedule is working out that day. It's so nice to end the day together with prayers, hugs, airplane rides that crash into bed and lullabies. Can't these days just last forever?

Saturday night, the most beautiful, fluffy, peaceful snow was falling in our neck of the woods. Tim snuck out to take this photo. I know it's March, and I'm supposed to start hating the snow now, but it has been so much fun and so beautiful these last several weeks. Tim and I are two of the few who feel this way, I'm sure, but we'll be sad to see it go! We treasure these precious winter memories and this time with our little guys!