What were we thinking?

Picture this....

It is 7:00pm. The kids are supposed to go to bed at 7:30. We head out the door to go get ice cream on a school night. Yes....ice cream before dinner, near bedtime, and in 55 degrees that felt like 45 degrees.

Chad got home late and we were outside playing and messing in the garden. Time got away from us...and dinner did not get made.

What kind of parents are we?

Anyway...it was "Get a Free Cone" at Ben and Jerry's on April 29th so of course we had to take advantage.

We had dessert before dinner. No folks, we don't do this every night. We eat dinner at a decent hour and get the kids to bed at their bedtime.

It was fun to be spontaneous.

It was so cold. We've had alot of warm weather and then all of a sudden it got cold. It was windy and cloudy and it felt like it was 45 degrees. Jack and I had sandals on and Chad had short sleeves. BRRRRRRR!!!! We had to wait in a 30 minute line. Waiting out in the cold certainly didn't deter us from a yummy ice cold treat.
Of course, we ran to the car and ate our cones there.

That's us...waiting in line in the cold for free ice cream at bedtime.

5. I am thankful for spontaneous moments with my family...ice cream before dinner on a chilly Spring evening.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

This past weekend, Ryan was disciplined with soap in his mouth. Of course, he cried. As he cried he told me that he had swallowed some soap. I said, "OK." And then

he said

"the soap is going to my heart."

I told him that it wasn't and

he said

"it is and the soap is going to wash Jesus away from my heart."

He is crying harder as he is telling me this....thinking that it must be true.

Of course, I told him that Jesus will always be there.....no amount of soap will wash him away.

Then he went on to tell me that God would not like me putting soap in his mouth.

One day soon I'm going to post about Ryan's fear of fibs. All due to Veggie Tale's Larry Boy and the Fib from Outer Space.

Thank You God!

See what 1000 Gifts is all about. What are you grateful for?

11/23/06-Ryan is only 3 here. He is growing so fast!

I'm grateful for

4. My wonderful husband. He is my best friend and an awesome daddy to our 3 boys. He is so patient and works so hard so I can stay home. I am so blessed that God brought us together and that he loves the Lord.

Weekly Winners(April 20th-April 26th)

These are my favorite shots from this week. Head on over to Sarcastic Mom for some more Weekly Winners.

A Busy Weekend

Ryan's First Soccer Game this season.


I missed the game because I went on the March of Dimes walk but Chad did a great job taking photos. I promised Ryan that I would be at the rest of his games.


The March of Dimes Walk

Thanks to all who donated to the March of Dimes. I will be continuing to raise money until May 12th. My goal was to raise 500.00. I am almost there. If you want to donate...click on the March of Dimes picture on the right.

Here are some photos of the walk. I walked in memory of Baby Tessa and in honor of my Baby Evan.

Tessa's Mommy and Daddy




The boys came to pick me up after the March of Dimes Walk. Lots of people, food and fun.

After the walk-we headed home for an afternoon of hardwork.

A work in progress. The vegetable garden.

The bug catcher and

the digger.

A New Project

Chad is going to be adding some flowers and a couple of trees to our landscape.

The challenge:

The NEW project is a vegetable garden. Friends of ours gave us some seedlings. I hope we can take care of them. They suggested Earth Box and gave us some other tips that were very overwhelming for someone with a "black thumb." We'll see. I will certainly keep you posted of progress. We are trying to grow tomatoes, corn, squash, broccoli, and watermelon.



Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. Genesis 1:11

A Thousand Gifts

I challenge you to keep a daily journal of A Thousand Gifts.You have got to go visit the following blog, A Holy Experience. It is so wonderful. She writes so eloquently. I am going to try keeping a daily journal of a thousand gifts. It is NOT the gifts I want but the gifts that I already have. God is so gracious.


Of course, I am so blessed that God gave me 3 Sunshine Boys
1. Ryan
2. Jack

3. Itty Bitty Sunshine Evan from Heaven

Unhappy Camper

This pic is of a happy camper yesterday. I couldn't get a good pic today because he was unhappy. You get 4 shots and see how happy you are. We went for a weight check and he got 4 of his immunizations. He weighs 8 lbs 1 ounce. The doc figured it out to be a gain of .77 of an ounce/day. She wants me to continue with 3 bottles a day in addition to nursing. I was exclusively nursing and then the doc wanted me to add one bottle a day of my milk plus 2 tsp. of neosure to add calories. This past week, I've had to up that to 3 bottles a day. When you want to keep your milk supply up-it is hard to give 3 bottles a day. I am very discouraged because I don't think I will be nursing very much longer. I do not pump anymore. I stopped that in February and gave the pump back to the hospital. It was difficult to pump and nurse. It seemed like that was all I did. My 4 and 2 year old seemed to be at their worst when I was "busy." I do have plenty of milk supply in my freezer from when he was in the NICU and I had to pump. They say breastmilk is the best but I feel inadequate when the doc wants to add all this other stuff to it. I know that he needs calories. I am not going to deny him his calories. I'm trying not to take this personally but I am having a hard time. I have the thoughts, "I can't provide my baby with what he needs-what is wrong with me?"

I also am so worried that he has a form of dwarfism. We were told when he was inutero that he had short longbones. That could be a sign of Down's or dwarfism. They ruled Down's out when they did a chromosomal study while he was in the NICU. They have not ruled out dwarfism. We are supposed to see a geneticist soon.

Please pray that I continue to give my worries up to God. It is always a struggle. Some days I feel good and it is easier to give my worries to God but then days like today-I really struggle. I am so worried.

Hoarder Disorder

I am finally accepting of the fact that I have hoarder disorder. What is wrong with me? Why am I trying to hold on to a toy that I got for Christmas when I was 2? This shopping cart lasted 33 years. My boys found a way to break it. Imagine that! I just loved my shopping cart. Why do I attach sentiment to everything? A piece of paper that my 2 year old scribbles on...I gotta keep it. Is it nature or nurture to be a hoarder? Hmmmm....I wonder? Ryan is exhibiting symptoms of my disorder except he is extreme...he likes to hoard trash. I would like to think that my "treasures" are not trash. I've caught him several times collecting things out of the trash that I have thrown out. He hides them strategically around the house. I am overwhelmed of having all my children in school at the same time and trying to distinguish what things to keep and what things not to keep. Poor Evan, the third child..that was me too....has to share his nursery with a scrapbook area and a storage area...aka. junk room. I can not even believe that I am going to post a picture to the world of a room that I try to shut the door and keep closed when guests arrive. Lysa Terkeurst and Karen Ehman have motivated me to share with my readers my lack of organizational skills. Don't judge me because of my junk. Just remember that God is much more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the condition of our homes. Check their sites out. Lysa is the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and Karen is the author of The Complete Guide of to Getting and Staying Organized. They are giving a way a few copies of the new book and will be offering organizational solutions on their blogs. I hope I am not too late in entering the Organization Swap and Hop. I risked waking up Evan to take the messy photos. Yes..he is there in the crib. He started to stir so I did not take the third photo which would've captured the rest of the mess.

PLease feel free to leave a comment so I know that I am not the only one who suffers from this disorder. :)

Enough already!

Jack thinks Mommy takes way too many pictures.

Thumbsucker

Ryan and Jack were paci babies and Evan is a thumbsucker. It is so cute b/c he rubs his nose with his index finger.

Brothers

They fight all the time but they still love each other very much!

E.T.

Everytime Jack gets out of the tub he says he wants to be E.T.

Soccer

Ryan's first soccer practice was on Thursday. He was so excited. Jack was too. He thought he was on the team too.

Monkeying Around

A trip to the zoo last weekend with some good friends. I'm sure people couldn't believe I had Evan at the zoo. I had many people come to me and ask me how many days old he was. It is interesting to have a 4 1/2 month old that is the size of a newborn. We were told to tell people his adjusted age but even his adjusted age at 2 1/2 months...he is little and we still get the look of disbelief on peoples' faces. When we tell them 2 1/2 months, they say, "really, he looks so little."