SO MUCH TO BLOG!

I have so so much catching up to do! I was so excited to blog this week but our computer is toast, so I really can't! BUT as soon as we figure something out I will be updating here! Gabe's bday party, and my latest adventure- my first gig making cupcakes for a wedding! Get a sneak peak in the bride's photogropher's blog http://mthopeacademy.blogspot.com/2010/07/wedding-story-details.html

Stay tuned!

Weekend Away!

Oh, and I was air brushed at the sephora counter! So Fun!

Last weekend I got to go visit one of my best friends, Laura, up in olympia. She is having her first baby and I went up for her baby shower, and to have some good old fashion girl time! At first I was going to just go up for the shower on sunday, but Laura invited me for the whole weekend, and Josh assured me he could handle the kids for two whole days! (When Josh told me I could go, I cried -I was sooo excited!) I left Saturday morning, and my brother Garret drove up with me to meet up with his girlfriend in W.A, making the drive quick and giving me such good brother sister time! I met up with Laura, and we took off to experience her very first Ikea shopping trip to get their baby room started! We had so much fun! We even ate lunch at the Ikea cafeteria! We spontaneously decided to go shopping at the mall, and then out to a nice dinner. It was sooooo nice just to catch up and talk, and fun to be with Laura as she gets ready for their baby boy! I also loved the fact (which laura you will soon understand:) that we could wander around and do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. I didn't have to worry about anyone getting hungry or tired- but me! We ate dinner at like 8:00, I don't know why but I found that thrilling! We stayed up eating ice cream and watching a movie- and even though I fell asleep soon before the movie was over, it was nice to know that i could stay up late and sleep in!

Her shower was so fun! I can't wait to meet baby Hagen! The weekend was so refreshing- I came home a little tired ...from so much fun, but with my soul refreshed. AND - I came home to kids clean and in bed, dishes done, floor vaccumed AND FLOWERS on the table- all which made me cry!!! Thanks Josh, and thanks Laura!

My Boy

I actually have tears in my eyes, just sitting down to write this! Even before typing anything! What a cornball! Well what a year it has been! Last year at this exact time (7:20 AM) I was getting Gracie dressed and feeding her breakfast, while breathing through contractions. Relishing in my last few moments as Grace has my only child, and over joyed in the fact that anytime that day I would be meeting my boy! He has proven me wrong in nearly all my parenting theories, tested my patience and not sleeping limit, and made me a better person and better mommy. He is full of spunk and joy. He loves watching and exploring how things work - and while doing so makes us laugh with his cute "concentration" face. He loves to wrestle with his daddy, play catch, give slobbery kisses, play with his trucks, and eat eat eat! (He also loves to have tea parties with his sissy, when she invites him!:) His favorite foods at the moment are cheese, bread, apple sauce, peas, more cheese, and pancakes! (I feed him many other good things, but if he had it his way he would only have to eat cheese all day!) He loves his sister, and wants to do everything she does. He knows the sign language for more, milk and eat, and he can say bye, hi, momma and dadda, and uh oh! I love you Gabe, you bring me so much Joy and I love being your mom!!!! Happy Birthday Little man!

Project Time

Right around the time Gabe turned 9 months old, I started to feel ready for a project. He was FINALLY sleeping well (though we we've back tracked a little- however I'm hopeful we'll get back on the sleeping train again soon) he was starting to crawl and was a little more able to entertain himself. Even though I was, and am, still very busy with the kiddos I was feeling like my hands were finally free a little. I had been feeling very frusterated before that, at the end of each day I would be completely wiped out- but have all kinds of productive energy left, and wanted to sew, bake, create! Make! But I just couldn't I was too tired. Ok- getting to the point! One day I was in good will looking for I don't know what, and I spotted these! They were only $10 EACH!!!! I couldn't believe my eyes! I gave them a shake and they felt like real wood, so I went out on a limb and bought them! (I happened to have exactly $20 left in grocery money that week....we may have eaten eggs and pancakes a few nights that week, but aren't they sure cute;)

Anyways- I was nervous Josh would think they were junk- I often pick out things that are super cute and super crappy- but he thought they were solid too! (I think he was a little proud of me;)

The total project- end tables, paint, and sanding paper cost me 38.39!

I didn't take the best pic of the final project, but they are certainly an upgrade to our plain jane bedroom! All I need to do now is add some fun lamp shades to my boring white ones and I'll have a sweet little makeover!

Losing it............

...... my mind that is!
So, soon I will, as promised, blog about my newly finished and first ever re-finishing furniture project, but for now I am simply going to blog about my revelation of a moment, if it were in fact profound enough to be called that.
Today was a pretty good day- Gabe didn't sleep great, but not too horrible. The sun was out, we went on a run, went to the park, Josh came home for lunch. Grace was on pretty good behavior and Gabe was good too. However by the end of the day the mundaness of the week was driving the three of us (yes even gabe) CRAZY!!! I mean crazy. Every two minutes Grace would say "i'm bored can I watch a movie?" To which I would say, "no, its gorgeous outside why don't you go out and play?". And I'm not exagerating one little bit- every sentence out of my mouth for THIRTY minutes, at the least, was - "grace stop kicking gabe, grace stop jumping on the couch, grace stop pinching gabe, grace stop pulling my shirt..........on and on and on. Now Grace really was doing all those naughty little things but who could blame her, I was bored out of my mind too! And I was losing it. Even though I knew she was acting up because she was bored just like me, I started to yell and snap and be a nasty mommy- and it wasn't her fault.
So this is where I could have a) took the kids on another trip to the park b) set grace up with an art project while I finished making dinner c) let grace ride her bike down the street d) wrote a letter to grandma.......and the list goes on and on of all the things I should have or at least could have done to resolve the situation. But I went into survival mode. A mode most often resorted to when the kids have croup and all plans and agendas must be cancelled, somebody has a fever, or like Christmas eve and my homemade presents are only half finished- those kinds of situations. But I went into it anyway- mostly to preserve any shred of sanity I had left today. and this is what I did. "Grace get out of timeout, we're going to get an ice cream cone!" Yes, it may have been 5:20! Yes, dinner may have been litterally half cooked on the stove, and yes, this was a totally bad mommy move, but IT WAS worth it. And I tell you what, I was a much better mommy because of it. It lifted our spirits. We decided to bring a cone to Josh who was finishing up at work. He was ready to leave by the time we got there so he let the kids play for a few minutes at his work while I went back home to finish making dinner in peace. It was perfect. Before, we were all in crummy moods, we were bored, we were down, and even though now I can think of about a hundred other things i could have done to make the evening better, in my mommy fight or flight mode I almost always resort to ice cream. And today- it worked.

Mother's day weekend

Mother's day weekend started off with the best saturday we've had in a long time! We had no plans, but were so productive, and none of it felt like work! It was gorgeous so we put our shorts on and planted our family garden! (Tomatoes, cucumbers, pumkins, peppers, jalepeno peppers, and some melons!) Then I re-organized all the toys in the house, re-arranged Grace's bedroom, and put my newly re-finished bedside tables (see next post) in our room! It sounds like work but it was fun to be so productive, and not be in any kind of rush! We went on a walk, made super yummy phad thai and went out for Ice cream! I have no pics to show because I was too busy enjoying it!

Mothers' day was also great. Josh and the kids let me sleep in (I got bored so I finished the book I was reading) while I waited for them to bring me breakfast in bed!!!!!! This was my request for mothers day and it was so great! I think the best part was just that I got to wait for breakfast to be brought to me while I laid in bed!!! Now the actual eating of the breakfast is a different story! So fun, but so many crumbs in the bed! (Gabe made things interesting!)

Then we had a fun, yummy, family brunch at the ever-classy eola hills winery, followed by Dox in the evening where Gabe was dedicated to Jesus! We did a group dedication, so we did it with all his little baby buddies! It was a great day!

I am soo soo blessed to be a mom. Rarely do I stop to reflect on the fact that being a mother is not a given but a true gift. It is by God's grace that he has given me the joy and the huge responsibility to love and care for my two beautiful children- and for that I am so thankful!

Thanks Josh and Gabe and Grace for such a wonderful weekend!

A few of my favorite things!

Friends!

Too much excitement!

Gabe's first Easter basket!

Such cute outfits!

Thanks Easter Bunny!

I caught a sweet moment of the kiddos playing together!

Number one. Saturdays

Recently one of my favorite things are Saturdays. It seems like we didn't slow down and catch up after the holidays till March was here, but now that we're here and the hustle and bustle has subsided a bit I LOVE saturdays when we have no plans! My favorite Saturday, at the moment, goes like this;

-"sleep in" or work out with Josh (Sometimes Gabe actually sleeps till 7 or later - SOMETIMES)

- Make coffee, put on the cartoons, and just relax

-Josh makes super yummy blueberry pancakes that the whole family loves (including Gabe!)

Then we clean up, and possibly my favorite part of the day is to bake something fun for tribe, usually with Grace's help! Then we either work on projects or have some visitors in the afternoons! It is truly my favorite day of the week!

Number two. Cooking for the kids.

I don't know why, but I love it when I get to cook a meal that both the kids can eat, and even better when we all eat it. Gabe is eating big boy food, but still can't eat everything that we eat, so I love making things we can all eat together. Example; breakfast I make one egg; Grace eats the white part and Gabe eats the yellow, one piece of toast that they share and some fruit! I don't know why but I love it!

Number three. Friends.

My favorite moment this past Easter Sunday was at the end of our service during the worship music; Grace, with her friends, running up and down the aisle with total joy on their faces. I am so thankful for the friends Grace has, I really pray that she can grow up with such a great group of friends to love and be loved by! That being said, Grace's friends' parents are truly an amazing group of people, a family indeed, who I love and am so so very thankful for! (Thats including those of you who are adopted aunts and uncles to Grace and her friends!!)

Number four. Dresses!

Gabe is finally and officially weaned! I am so excited to be wearing dresses and anything else not condusive to having a nursing newborn!

Number Five.Crawling.

He's finally got it! He's not super fast yet, and he has this akward cute little crawl but he's doing it! He's already getting into everything and driving his sister absolutely nuts, but I think he's already starting to love his newfound freedom and mobility!

Number six. This stage

Having a 3 1/2 yr old and a 9 month old. Though things do not always go how I would like them to all the time, and life is still crazy, I finally feel like we are entering a tiny bit of a smoother stage.

Number Seven. Dox Easter Morning Work Party

I didn't used to like this idea. We get up early Easter Morning and go serve the community where it needs it. This year we worked at a park, weeding, painting, pulling ivy, picking up trash. Then we have our Easter service. I didn't like it at first because I thought it would make it akward to invite friends and family ......and because lets face it, I really like the idea of wearing an Easter Dress! BUT, it was awesome! We got muddy and had fun. And It really felt like real worship. Like a true celebration of the fact that Jesus died and rose so that we could know him and have freedom in him! Plus there were lots of people running and walking around the park that morning who were like, wow what are you all doing out here on Easter! It was great!

Lastly, Number Eight.

We cancelled our t.v, which I am not loving quite yet- particularly because we've been all cooped up with the rain! But, we've been watcing all the shows we like online. So my favorite thing to do is a couple nights a week when we have nothing going on, making some popcorn and watching a few shows on our computer all cozied up in bed! I don't know why, probably because I'm lazy, but I love having a snack, watching exactly what I want, when I want, with limited commercials and then just rolling over to fall asleep instead of walking all the way upstairs when I'm done!

Obviously, it is very simple to make me happy! These are just a few of the blessings that I'm savoring at the moment!