The things that keep us busy (on long, cold, 'stuck inside' winter days!)

So young to waste his life away behind bars!

(Maybe he's taking after his daddy and ministering to the inmates, not actually in prison himself!)

A very common pose for Caleb - right thumb in mouth, left hand on head (his or someone else's depending on where he is!)
Poor kid - no toys, has to play with mommy's curtains!

My name is Caleb...and I'm a Jump-aholic!

This is Caleb's new favorite thing to do (after eating of course!) He literally stays in there for hours!

So silly!

Praise You in this storm

Something that has consumed a great bit of my time this past week is praying for a very special family. While I don't know them personally I have found myself thinking of them hundreds of times each day, praying for them almost as often and checking their blog for updates constantly! (I think if you were to come over you'd see that my house is looking somewhat "forgotten" because of it!) Their names are Nathan, Tricia and Gwyneth Lawrenson and while I'm not sure how well I can tell the story it has touched me nonetheless and so I'll try.... Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis and was waiting for a double lung transplant when they found out they were expecting a baby. Sweet little Gwyneth Rose was born last Tuesday at 1lb 6oz. While Tricia remains somewhat asleep (they've been reducing the sedatives so she is slowly waking) Gwyneth is in the NICU and is a precious little miracle! I went to high school with Tricia's sister, Megan (we played softball together) and her sister, Janet was my PE teacher (so much fun!!!) I vaguelly remember Tricia, but I'm sure she wouldn't know me from Eve. Still I see how this family is living out their faith in such a real way and have been impacting countless thousands of people worldwide with their testimony of hope and peace because of their relationships with Jesus Christ! My eyes are getting all watery and fogged over as I write this (just as they do with every post of Nathan's that I read!) I'm just amazed at how our awesome God is working in such a real way during such a difficult time. In one of Nathan's posts he says that this isn't a sad time for him. While I'm sure they wouldn't have chosen this situation for themselves had they been given the choice they sure are walking living testiments to lives that are completely surrendered to God no matter what life brings. How I hope and pray that I could do the same if I were to be in their shoes! If you're reading this and don't know about the Lawrenson's story, please check their blog http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ and above all, please pray for them!! Our God is an awesome God!!
This song by Casting Crowns keeps coming to my mind as I'm writing this:
Praise You in this storm
I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away

Chorus

I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Chorus

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Hanging the Candy Canes

"Cluster Decorating" He put everything in the same spot!

Before I realized he had stuck his thumb inside a glass ball ornament and cut himself

Elmo ornament (now sporting a Spider Man band-aid!)

There she is in all her glory (complete with Pooh on top - which was tricky for someone who's only 5'3" - I used a level to raise him up there!)

Look at this happy smiling child full of Christmas cheer!

That's better!

Sweet boys!

After baths and ready for bed

Our little hatchlings! (at the zoo)

Sammy decided to name this puppy "Pitch". It's the first thing he's named. We have no idea where he got this name from!

Caleb's first bite of baby food (carrots)

Our little chef. Since getting this he wants to "help" me cook everything!

Spider Sammy!
Nothing like a little banana chased down by some toes! Yummy!

Precious!!!!

More videos of Sammy singing...

Here they are...more singing videos! He's so funny. He'll do anything on camera as long as he can watch it when he's done. So at the end of each song he quick runs to the camera to watch it!

In case you can't understand it (I can't imagine why) he's singing "and the Lord saved me, I'm as happy as can be, my cup is full and running over"

Here's another one, but on this one he forgot the words and just couldn't recover!!! =)

Check out our Disney Slide Show!

We're back

We're home from Disney and finally getting settled. The boys are just about back to their normal schedules and the laundry is finally under control!!! =)
We had such a great time! Sammy LOVED seeing all of the characters! By the second one he knew the deal. He'd ask for his autograph book and pen to take to them. He'd hand them the book and pen, give them hugs and then turn and pose for a picture. It was really cute! He was pretty serious for several days when we'd take his picture so we finally told him he needed to smile really big and after that all of the pictures have him with a cheesey grin!
Caleb did great too. I was feeling bad that Sammy was in all of the pictures and Caleb was just in the stroller most of the time so I would snap a few of him in his stroller every now and then. Poor kid! He really just got little stroller cat naps all day so he seems to be doing really well at home again with long naps!
We left of Saturday morning at 4am and got to Savannah, GA at 5pm. We spent the night there and did a little sight seeing Sunday morning. I really wanted to eat lunch at Paula Dean's restaurant, but we got there at 10am and would have had to wait until 3pm to get in! The line was unbelievable!!! We drove about 4 more hours Sunday and got to Orlando by dinner time.
We spent 2 days at Magic Kingdom and Epcot and one day each at Animal Kingdom and MGM. It was so much fun! We were so impressed with the whole experience! Which was obvious by the number of pictures we took...617!!! Absurd! But we're glad we did!

DISNEY!!!!!

We are so excited to be going to Disney!! We leave at 4am tomorrow! I'm very nervous about the sleeping in the car thing, but we'll live! We will be driving to Savannah and plan to arrive there around dinner time. We'll spend the night and then go to Paula Dean's restaurant for lunch on Sunday!!!!! Yay!! I am so excited about that! Then we'll drive to Orlando and plan to get there around dinner time Sunday. All of this, of course, depends on the boys and how many stops we have to make. We're hoping to plan our stops around Caleb's schedule as much as possible so I can feed him, Sammy can run around a bit, we can gas up and use the bathroom. Pray that this works so we can make it as quick a trip as possible for all of our sanity! We're so extremely excited to go! We always said we'd go before we had kids, but obviously that didn't happen. This will be the first for all 4 of us! Sammy doesn't quite understand how soon we're going. We keep telling him it's getting close, but I don't think he can grasp time yet! Just about every time we get into the car to go somewhere these last few weeks he asks if we're going to see Mickey Mouse! So cute! I'm hoping he doesn't figure it out when we wake him at 4am tomorrow so that he'll fall back to sleep in the car right away, but he's a smart kid!
Anyway, all of this to say that we're super excited and hope you all pray for safety and that we'll miss everyone and expect a few babies to be born while we're gone!! =)
Did I mention we're going to Paula Dean's restuarant?!!! ;)

By the way, this is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from the Disney channel show that Sammy loves to watch. He has this toy at home and thinks that this is where we'll be sleeping when we're there!!

The Mom Song

I found this song today and had to share it! (sorry, I can't figure out how to get it to display here so I had to put the link)


http://seehere.blogspot.com/2007/10/mom-song.html

Sammy's Singing Debut!

You can't imagine how much I wanted to giggle when I was taping this!! At the end I thought he was done and stopped it, but he sung it one more time!! =)

My big boy!!

Sammy is getting so big! He got a haircut yesterday and everytime after a haircut I think he looks more and more like a little boy and not a baby!



What a handsome little man!!

I'm on a roll with posts today!!!

I was trying to catch a few cute pictures of the boys this morning. I seem to pull out the camera whenever they're together like this....poor Caleb, the only pictures we're going to have of the poor child is ones with both of them!

Anyway, Sammy was holding Caleb and he gently put his hand on Caleb's head and then layed his head down. I quick snapped the picture before they moved...or so I thought! Wouldn't you know Caleb spits up! And when have you ever seen spit-up caught in mid air like this?? Lunacy!

My husband thinks I'm nuts!!

So we had this pig roast at church yesterday. I was signed up to bring a dessert. It was a PIG roast...what else would I bring???

Piggy cupcakes of course!!!!!

Caleb

Here's a quick video of Caleb. Of course he barely giggles while I'm taping him, but before and after he giggles a ton! Kids!! =)

Mommy's little helper

Sammy loves to help me do laundry. It's great for me because he keeps me going all day long and we get lots done, but he doesn't understand that we have to wait for it to be done to put more in! He also drives me crazy sometimes when he "helps" fold! Oh well! It's good that he's learning to help around the house! (he also loves cleaning windows so I'll have to post a picture of that soon!)

In this picture he had one of Daddy's t-shirts over his head. Silly!

My baby is growing up!!

Hebrews 5:13
For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right.

Ok, he's still an infant, but he is now eating solid food (if you can call soggy baby cereal solid!). He had his first taste on Saturday. He seemed to really like it. Granted he only eats a Tablespoon or so, but that's not bad for just starting out!

Labor Day....From a Mom's Point of View!!

From Wikipedia:
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that takes place on the first Monday in September. The holiday began in 1882, originating from a desire by the Central Labor Union to create a day off for the "working man".
hmmmmm..........how about the working stay at home mom??!!
I remember like it was yesterday the first time I realized that moms don't get a day off. Sammy was just a few weeks old and I woke up in the morning sick as a dog. I remember thinking, "wait...I don't ever get a day off. No sick days, no personal days, nothing!" On call 24/7! That's a mommy's life. Moms know the real meaning of labor day...we do it every day! We don't even get weekends off and they created a special holiday for themselves! Silly!
Sometimes when I don't feel good or didn't sleep well because of a newborn waking during the night I'll say to my wonderful husband in the morning "I'm calling out sick today". He lovingly rolls his eyes and says "yeah! right!"
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE being a mommy. I truly never imagined that I would get married, let alone have these two beautiful boys! Growing up I always had the recurring dream that I was the single jet-setting aunt who dropped in on my sister and her beautiful home with kids running everywhere. I would give them gifts and snicker as she made them all dinner. Then I would leave and that was the end of the dream. Now I find myself doing what I never imagined, but always wanted!
There's no better job than being at home with my boys. I have no desire to ever go back to work! I love being with them!
I guess they can have their Labor Day, but I'm throwing a stink next Mother's Day if I don't at least get to take a nice nap!! =)
Happy Labor Day!

Soccer....

I have a love/hate relationship with soccer! I love it because it means Tote is seeing men come to the Lord when he coaches/plays with Saints and because it's a good oulet for ministering to teens when he's coaching at BHS, but I hate it because everytime he's involved in it he's away from us for too long! Sammy's at the age now where he notices that Daddy should be home, but isn't and he gets very 'daddy lonely'! I must be very selfish, but it's hard when he's working days, coaching nights and traveling on Saturdays. Throw in church and youth group and we don't see too much of each other!
** End Venting Session! =) **

What a Great Physician we have!

Just last night I was feeding Caleb and Tote was heading down to his office to get some work done. He said "I'll be right back to put him to bed". We always give kisses and put him to bed together or at least make sure he has said goodnight before I put him down. Just the way that he said that threw my mind into what this time might look like had my burns been worse than they were or had Caleb been delivered early as we feared.
For those of you who don't know, I was severely burned in April when I was 9 months pregnant with Caleb. We feared that he would come early before I had a chance to heal and that I would not be able to care for him. It was so hard and humbling to not be able to care for myself during those weeks, but by far the hardest thing that I have ever dealt with in my entire life was to not be able to care for Sammy. I wasn't able to get him up in the morning, put him to bed or naps, get his meals, change his diaper, dress him, hold him or even hug him. It tore me up inside! I can't imagine if Caleb had been born during all of that and I wasn't able to hold my baby or nurse him!
God is so good!!!! We took the last bandage off the day before Caleb arrived! He is healthy and the happiest little sweetheart!! I can nurse him and care for him and just be a mommy to him and to Sammy. I can't express how grateful I am for that blessing! I love being their mommy!!
That moment last night just made me reflect on how things could have been and how thankful we are for God's healing and provision during such a rough time!