Halloween 2011

As much as I look forward to these special days, like trick or treating, I am so glad when they are over. The build up, anticipation, and the chaos the day of can be pretty crazy!
All that to say, we had a great year of pumpkin carving and trick or treating....We hope you did to.

Joseph carved his own pumpkin this year. He did awesome! (or so I thought). His is on the right and Christian's is on the left. C had a little help.

This has nothing to do with trick or treating, but this is the mask that went to Joseph's ninja costume and I thought it was so awesome on Nathan.

The older two boys were both Ninja's, or as Christian says, "Injas." They were so cute going door to door.

And here we are..reality. Nathan was having a pretty rough night. During one of his crying fits, I noticed his bottom two molars coming in, so maybe that was the cause of his melt down.?

The older two did have a great time, I promise.

Our Season of Life

This is a post about our season of life, so it may not be for those we see a lot because you probably know what's going on, but for our family and friends who we don't see often. When I was in college, I would email family about every couple of months to give them updates and from what they told me, they always enjoyed it. They felt like they knew what was going on in my life even though they didn't get to see me.

So here is an update for our family, starting with Jeff: He was currently assigned a new project that is out of Canada. As much as we are very grateful for new projects and a job, a starting project can be pretty demanding. Like having to work from home on the weekends and over-time. I am also loving the fact that if he has to travel for this project, it's going to be to Canada and not overseas or South of the border. I told him, "I might actually travel to Canada with you if you have to go."He has been running with some friends and family a few nights a week so that's been good for him. I feel bad for him because I know he enjoys working out, it's just finding the right time to do it. He gets up pretty early to go to work and he's respectful in the fact that I like having him home by 6, so that eliminates working out before and after work. He sometimes runs during his lunch break, but that can be pretty toasty between the months of May-October. So this has been a good compromise. He is home for dinner, gets to play with the boys, helps with baths and bed time and then gets to go workout and be home by 10.

As for me, I have been pretty busy with the normal, "motherly" chores. I have also been in a Fall Bible Study that is on Wednesday mornings. I love love love love this day of the week. Even though this study has been pretty slow, God has revealed himself to me in a very loving way. I have recently started meeting with two wonderful girls on Monday nights to share stories, talk about our struggles, pray for and encourage one another. How God orchestrated this situation was perfect. When I was asked by Sarah to meet with her and another wonderful women of God, I was going through a rough season. A season where I was feeling abandoned, a season where I felt God was humbling me, which can be pretty miserable, so the timing of the invitation was awesome. I have only gone two times, but I have really enjoyed it and I now look forward to Monday evenings as well as Wednesday mornings.

As for Joseph, well, he is about a month and half from being 5! I honestly can't believe it. He is going to be a ninja for Halloween, so we are looking forward to that. He is really into baseball right now. He asks just about every day if there is baseball on t.v.. We are enjoying the World Series right now since the Texas Rangers are in it.

Christian-boy is about to be three. He is officially potty trained!! I am so relieved. He got the pottying down really fast, but going #2 took a while. We were pushing almost two months of him not telling us when he needed to go. We tried prizes, special drinks, movies and popcorn, candy, nothing was working! I was confident that he knew what he needed to and how to do it, he just wasn't. It came down to where I had to get pretty firm for two days and boom, he's been successful ever since. He too, is going to be a ninja for Halloween.

Nathan is a week away from turning one and I want to go lay on the couch and get in a fetal position and cry. We talk a lot about having a fourth, but we don't know if it's safe for me to continue with another pregnancy, so the thought of my baby ALREADY turning one is very sad for me. I don't think I did a post on him when he turned 10 months or when he turned 11 months, but when he turned 10 months, he wasn't really doing anything different from when he was 9 months.

So to make up for that, Nathan at 11 months: You are in size 3 diapers, you are now crawling and pulling up on everything. Tonight, you pulled to a standing position on the side of the tub. You say:Mama, Dada, ball, doggie, more, m (for milk), and I am almost certain you said "Joe" the other morning. You can dance, kiss, clap and wave on command. You lovelovelovelovelove Joseph....ok, and Christian (a different kind of love ;-) ). You love your milk, although, we think you have had a little virus this past week, so we have taken the milk away and probably won't bring it back until next week. You love balls and the firehouse that is in Joseph's room. You wear 9 month and 12 month clothes, although the other day, I got you into a 3-6 month onesie. You wear size 3 shoe. You take two naps (10a and 2p) and go to bed at 8p. The morning nap is at such a convenient time *saying with a super sarcastic tone*, with running errands, having play dates and church. You are a pretty happy baby, but I don't think people believe me because when our friends see you, it's during your morning nap, which you tend to be grumpy gills.

And to conclude the update on our family, I would like to share that we have recently become members of a new church family.
When Jeff and I got married, we talked a lot about where to attend church. He was raised in a Church of Christ and I was raised saying that I was follower of Jesus, but attended different churches throughout my childhood, some being under the umbrella of Assemblies of God and some being Baptist churches. He had been a part of a church for at least 15+ years. His entire family went there, close friends went there, people that he loved and respected went there. So we thought, for the beginning of our marriage, that was where we needed to be. About 6 months ago, we felt God really pressing on both our hearts for a fresh start. Without airing all of our most intimate conversations here, what it came down too was that we both were in need of something fresh. We needed something fresh for our own spiritual lives, we needed something fresh for our marriage, and something fresh for our children. About a year prior to us making the difficult decision of stepping out there to see where God was going to take us, a vast majority of Jeff's family had departed and went to different churches around the area. That was a very difficult time for the both us. As much as I wanted to be excited for everyone and to see what God was doing in all their lives, I couldn't help but feel alone. When I think back to that time, it was actually a very good thing for Jeff and I. We began to sit down and talk about why we go to church, what we want to get out of church and how we wanted to be Jesus' hands and feet.
We prayed a lot, we sought a Christian counselor from Houston First Baptist, we sought scripture and Christian authors, like Hank Hanegraaff.

I can't speak for Jeff, but for me it really got to a point church was just about Sundays and Wednesdays and from what we have experienced these past 6 months, we have learned that church is beyond Sundays. Being a follower of Christ is living a daily life totally surrendered to Him (which I can/do struggle with). I once heard a preacher say, "that being a Christian isn't just knowing the facts, it's an experience." That was so convicting to me. Here I was learning about God, but I wasn't really going out into our community sharing, loving or reaching out. I think we at times tend to favor and make our decisions on what's familiar and what's normal to us. Even though we tend to favor normalcy, this quote sums it up for me, "I think the point is for us not to let familiarity with something make us think we don't need to give it our all." I really think that was where I was in my walk, not giving it my all.

Being a follower of Christ isn't always the most convenient, comfortable, normal thing to do. I'm in a bible study and this entire semester is on surrendering and getting rid of the old and going on with the new...."weeping forward". As hard as the decision was for us, we knew we had to do it even though it might hurt a lot of feelings. It also came to a point we had to stop trying to please others, but to exam our own spiritual lives, our marriage, and our roles as parents.
After many conversations, Jeff and I decided it was time to step out and visit other churches. We weren't searching for the perfect church, because that doesn't exist, and we weren't following a group of people, but we were looking for a place that we could see ourselves growing, our marriage being challenged and encouraged and a place we could see our kids growing and being taught. We went with an open mind and heart, so if we didn't feel like God was taking us anywhere else, and felt led to go back to where we were, we were going to do just that. One of the things we really wanted to try was going to churches in our community. We really wanted to start reaching out to our neighbors, people we met at parks, chick fil a, etc, and be able to invite people to church. Visiting churches was a much harder task than we thought it would be. We went to churches where people greeted us with hugs, we visited churches where not a single person approached us ,we went to a church that after about 10 minutes in, we were like, "we do not fit in here." It was a long search, but we have recently joined a new church home and we couldn't be happier.

We are at peace with our decision and super excited to see where God is going to take us through this church. We have already seen God work mightily through us since we stepped out in faith. It was very hard to leave a place that was normal, a place that was familiar, a place where everyone knew us, a place that loved our boys, but we have seen God's blessing. It's hard not to think about the feelings that were hurt, but like I said before, it was something we felt God was pressing on our hearts, and we felt like we needed to surrender. Even though getting to that point of surrender was very difficult, it feels so free now to know that we did what we felt led to do.
"God's ways are not always the most practical, popular, or unopposed, but they are the most blessed."

Pumpkin Patch 2011

I am really taking advantage of the pumpkin patch picture years, because with boys, I know it will soon come to an end.
For me, it's fun to go back each year and compare pictures to previous years and see how much each boy has changed. Last years pumpkin patch, I was about ready to have our little bundle of joy, Nathan, and C-bear was a little guy.
Taking pictures this year was a little challenging because: Joseph pretty much doesn't smile for the camera, instead, he does these super silly grins, goofy faces, or frowns. Christian, cheeses so hard it looks like he is dropping pellets in his undies. As for Nathan, he was distracted by the hay, grass, pumpkins, other mothers yelling at their kids while trying to get their pictures, "hey look up here. hey hey hey," and the cars that were zooming down the road.
Even though I didn't get the most amazing shot ever, I did capture one of my favorite traditions through the camera and we went away with three pumpkins (small, medium and large), for my little pumpkins, also, small, medium and large.

Love these guys!!

See, cheesing so hard!

Yes! All looking at the camera, although,Christian is about to sneeze.

See, silly smile

Beavers Bend Weekend

About two weeks ago we were blessed by my parents, a.k.a, Mimi and Papaw with a trip to Beavers Bend, Oklahoma.
We have been wanting to go camping for a while now, but with Nathan only being 11 months, we weren't sure how tent camping would go. The more Jeff and I talked about it, we thought if we were going to go tent camping, we should go around the Houston area just in case Nathan didn't sleep well in the tent. We had planned if the first night of sleep didn't go well, Nathan and I would make the short drive back home.
After looking at area camp sites and all of them being sold out, we decided to go with a cabin. We were going back and forth between Arkansas and Beavers Bend. My parents suggested Oklahoma because they had a lot to do at BB State Park.
They were right, it was a blast.
The cabin we stayed in was awesome! Usually when you hear or experience a cabin deep in the woods, you think: dirty, nasty, big spiders, dirty, roaches are going to come out of the shower head. Not the cabins we stayed in. They were so nice and clean. It had a kitchen so we, well, my mom (Love You!), was able to cook. We were very secluded, so the boys were able to go outside by themselves and play. Boys are just meant for outdoors and woods!
Here are some pictures from our trip:

Papaw and Nathan enjoying the nice, peaceful river.

What was supposed to be,"just take your shoes off and feel the water,"turned into becoming fully submerged.

I talk a lot about how I love my husband and you may get tired of it, but this picture captures one of the most beautiful things about him. He is such a great dad. Always interested in what the boys are saying and doing. Love that about him.

Enjoying some cotton candy.

Nathan was very interested in holding the blue fluffy stuff, but WOULD NOT eat it. He just tore it apart and would throw the pieces on the ground.

They had a train that ran through BB State Park. It was a nice, scenic ride.

This kid has been DYING to climb trees lately. A few weeks ago when we went to the zoo, it took us forever to get through because he wanted to climb every.single.tree! Needless to say, he enjoyed all the big trees that he could climb.

What I can imagine my boys faces would look like if we lived in the woods. Notice how dirty it is?

Just one of the beautiful views.

Some other highlights: Watching the Rangers win!, roasting marshmallows, kayaking, the boys telling Jeff and I that we forgot to go camping (we had talked so much about camping in a tent, that since we didn't do it, we didn't go camping), almost beating Jeff in a bike race around the camp ground, meeting two labs that were so sweet that I actually thought for a second taking them home with us, and boys sleeping a huge chunk of the 8 hour trip back. They were exhausted!

Thank you Mimi and Papaw for a fantastic weekend!

1+1+1=3

It's hard to believe, just four short years ago we had this little man.

Then two years later, we were blessed with our C-bear.

Then 21 months after that, we were blessed with our third boy.

I get asked a lot what it's like to have three and how difficult it is going from 1 to 2 and then 2 to 3. I remember someone telling me that going from no kids to one was difficult and going from 1 to 2 was also difficult. Then he continued to say that 2 to 3 and then 3 to 4 wasn't that bad. After going from 2 to 3 myself and then my sister in law having her fourth, I asked her what she thought about that statement. We came to the conclusion that the statement wasn't completely accurate. We concluded that it really depends on the order of your kids and their personalities that determines how smooth the transition is.

Going from having no kids to having a child is probably a challenge for everyone. The thing that I most struggled with was getting to be with just Jeff all the time. At the very beginning of being a new mom, I remember missing those nights of just Jeff and I on the couch watching our favorite shows. Now, my life was wrapped up in our new little bundle of joy.

As for going from 1 to 2, that was actually a pretty smooth transition for us. Joseph was a super sweet 2 year old. Didn't get in to much, watched cartoons, and would play in his room for long periods of time. He was also a very patient toddler. He understood from a very young age what it meant when I would say, "hold on, let me finish this and then I will help you." He basically made my job look easy. Christian as an infant was awesome! The kid slept all day, so that allowed me to help Joseph a lot during the day and play with him. And if I had a rough night of sleep, Joseph was so calm that he would just sit on the couch and watch cartoons as long as they were on so I could catch a cat nap with Christian in the early mornings.

Going from 2 to 3 was one of the most challenging things I have ever encountered. Nathan was one of those babies you hear about who has his days and nights mixed up. THAT was my kid. He slept all day and would start his alert time at 9p and would be awake off and on until about 5a and then around 5a till late evening he would sleep. I remember some days feeling like a zombie. I would get really dizzy, nauseated, and super exhausted from the lack of sleep
I was getting. Christian and Nathan are only 21months apart, and Christian wasn't anything like Joseph. He just now (at 2 1/2) will sit and watch cartoons, so that was challenging when I would turn on the toons to try to catch a power nap and he wouldn't sit down. He would want something and wouldn't quit asking until I got it for him or would want to be held. This was also a peek travel time for Jeff at his work, so that was extremely difficult. Trying to manage three small children on a total of 5 hours of interrupted sleep was insane.

Now that I get sleep, things are pretty smooth, tiring, but smooth. The older two play great together and are generally in the same location, so that's nice to be able to keep up with them. Nathan is a pretty content baby and is with me at all times, unless he's sleeping, so it's easy to keep up with him.

At times I feel like I have it together, but then I go to Wal-Mart on Fridays to go grocery shopping. I get this comment at least 3 or more times while shopping, "Wow, you have your hands full." I am hoping they are saying that because I really do have my hands full (having 3 boys, 4yrs of age and under) and not because I have this "look" on my face or because my kids are out of control.

As tiring as it can be to be a mother of 3 growing boys, I love them to death. Most days I am ready to put them to bed and have an evening of peace, by when I settle into my room for the evening, I can't stop talking about them and look forward to the next day.

Love my little men!

Summer Recap

Here is our Summer recap in pictures: (No particular order)

We played in the water a lot!We went to watch the Astros play the San Fransisco Giants. First time to go as an entire family and Nathan's first Major League game. *Sidenote* We didn't plan it like this, but the last time I had seen the Giants play was when they were playing the Rangers for the World Series and I was laid out on the couch in labor with Nathan.
Took a much needed and anticipated overnight trip to Galveston.

Boys worked hard and read 60 books each to get their reading medals.

Came across a stack of tortillas that a certain little two year old took out of the bag and took a bite of the entire stack!

We went to Dallas to celebrate Cooper's First Birthday.

Ate Strawberries

Went to Cocoa Beach and Ron Jon Surf Shop.

Went to a wedding at Disney world.

Graduated from diapers.

Sat in large buckets of water to cool off.

And we celebrated Nathan turning 7 months,

8 months,

and 9 months.

Hope you had a great summer!