Blessed by my In-Laws

We are soo blessed by our parents! But after this last short visit I want to express just how thankful I am to have my in-laws.... no, really!!

They have been and continue to be a source of support for both Brian and I! Brian calls his dad regularly with ministry or financial questions. I call his mom more... LOL... with cooking help, decor questions and personal questions. Not only do they field our crazy questions, but they've supported our parenting, ministry and marriage!

And I know they pray daily for us... I know because they tell us!! It's such a comfort to know in the midst of church ministry and the trenches of parenting that we have prayer warriors !

Here is Grandma enjoying a picnic lunch with her grandbabies.... always an adventure! She is always soo good natured and takes stuff in stride:) My favorite part of her personality is that she thinks the best of everyone and their intentions... especially grandbabies who have GUILT written across their faces!! LOL

The kids wanted to "take pictures" with Grandma's camera... all week!!!

So finally we caved in and let them show their creativity:) Anna was directing our poses and asked us to make CRAZY faces!! So we did!!

Can you see how sweet my mother-in-law is:) And how comfortable she makes others feel when she is around them:)

Grandma and Grandaddy, thank you for visiting us and celebrating Brian's Graduation and Anna's early 5th Birthday! We really enjoyed your visit and regretted that you had to leave soo soon! Thank you for all your love and support. And the gifts for all of us! I'm sure we will be in touch this week AND will see you in the mountains in a couple of weeks!!

Dollar Tree & Making a Letter Factory

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the LeapFrog Letter Factory video.... I've gushed over it plenty I know. It's crazy though how much they picked up from it. We haven't watched it in months and Christopher can still quote it:)

I took the kids to the Dollar Tree with dollars that had been given to them. And I did the worst thing a mom can do (but it's a good learning experience for the kids and good for me to see their little minds at work)..... I told them that they each had $1 and could only purchase 1 item.

When they first walked in their eyes were HUGE... they could pick whatever they wanted!! There were a few items I had to talk them out of... Christopher wanted a bat and ball (we have three sets in the garage) and he wanted a scrub brush...LOL... should have let him have that...LOL

Anyway, Anna picked out a little Disney Princess figurine and Lydia chose a stick horse to "ride" (soo cute!! for a $1). Christopher had to make a decision about a noisy gun (please no) or a letter puzzle. Honestly, I was going to let him have his choice!! But he put down the gun and was soo excited about the letters......

Those poor letters have been used soo much!!! They have been played with everyday by every kid! Chris has SLEPT with them at least 2 nights and one nap....LOL

The first night he made us a "letter factory"... AKA he tried to put the letters in ABC order. So cute!!!


Looks like we have some more praciticing to do:)

Out to enjoy our BEAUTIFUL weather:)

Fun Day- Momma is very tired

Well I wish I would have pulled out the camera that I took with me to take some pictures of the friends that we visited with today. Brian and I went to seminary with the husband and wife. In fact CarolAnn graduated with me (almost 10 months pregnant with Anna) and Brian and Tommy started the PhD program at the same time. They have two kids that are just months younger than both Anna and Christopher:) They are also serving in a local church!!! We haven't gotten together with them often...I'm not sure why because the kids did very well together once they got "settled".

"settled" you may ask...... Anna will still get soooo upset when she's in a new and uncomfortable environment. So she spent most of the first hour crying.....it's very frustrating but I try HARD not to show her how frustrated I am with her just because it doesn't help the situation. But many times I just don't know WHAT to do with her. So today she sat in a diffferent room alone until she was calm enough to sit or stand by me....really just 10 minutes next to me and she was off to play with the other kids. She has actually done MUCH MUCH better this year...I remember going to the park when Christopher was still nursing and Anna won't even get on the play equipment because the child we KNEW was playing on it. So even in the VERY frustrating moments I'm thankful that she is adjusting and will eventually stop fussing and play.

The kids played all morning and into the afternoon. They fell asleep during the car ride home and I stayed in the car with them until they woke up....just so we would all get a few precious moments of rest and quiet!!! During dinner preparation we quickly made an executive decision to out them to BED early.....so we started the bedtime routine an hour earlier than normal and had a FEW more quiet moments this evening.........because we are ALL TIRED!!

I had to pick Anna up some more PJs just b/c she's getting so tall and the other PJ shirts are too short :) Anyway, she had been waiting for me to wash these new PJS so she could wear them. She told me this evening, "I don't like Dora anymore, I like ducks." Guess what the new PJs had ont hem ....yep, you guessed it DUCKS. Here she is proudly showing off her new duck PJs and her wild hair:)

A Year Already?

Well today we celebrated Lydia's birthday. Brian and I remember the hoping we did each night waiting for labor to come during the night :) But to no avail, Lydia had to be "induced" out.

I guess I can chase the rabbit about my theory about labor and the kids' personalities. Anna wasn't too early or too late...she's very timely. She required alot of hard work but she was ready and willing. She still can be a little stubborn at times but is usually soo complaint and wanting to please! Christopher...phew...he came at least 10 days early and surprised us all. And we labored in the sweetest environment and immediately had visitors. Can I say Christopher?? He is always TWO steps ahead of us, he can have the sweetest nature (hugging toy babies, saying "I wuv you" to Mommy) and he easily makes friends. Lydia (like I said above) had to be FORCED out and then be checked over by the NICU (who she smiled and coo-ed at). Lydia is by far the snugglest baby we've had and she is very good natured, we've had a LOT of smiles :)

I pulled some of our favorite pictures.....I hope you enjoy as we celebrate Lydia's 1st year :)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We praise God for our sweet blessings....Anna, Christopher and Lydia!! And we thank Him for everyday (exhausting or fun) that we are given with eachother:)