Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Eight Wonderful Years!

This past weekend Jason and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary! I still can't believe that we have been married for that long, it seems like we should still be much younger than that. :) Jason is an amazing man! I can't imagine living life with someone else by my side. He keeps me balanced, gives me perspective. He is always strong and encouraging. He is always ready with a listening ear and good advice. Although usually the advice is mixed with teasing and sarcasm I have learned to understand what he's saying and it usually lightens the moment! :) We have had quite the adventure so far in our marriage. It hasn't always been easy - pretty hard sometimes in fact. But he has stayed faithful, true and loving no matter what is going on! Even when he is the one that should "get" to be upset, hurt or down he is always giving to me and making sure I am ok! He is so hardworking! I can't imagine doing his job. The weather and conditions that he has to work in! The hours that he works would kill me. LONG, long days in the worst of weather. They don't get days off for bad weather - they are the ones out working in it all. You should see some of the places that he has to sleep at night. Yuck. But he never complaines, then comes home and asks what I need. He is a good guy through and through. I take him for granted too often. He loves the Lord and strives to grow. He is a great leader of our family. He always remembers to have family Bible and prayer time with the kids at night. I love this guy - can't imagine life without him. I am blessed beyond messure! I better go tell him!
Happy Anniversary Babe! Love you with all my heart!!

Jake the Senior

So as corny as it sounds I can't believe that Jacob is a senior! I still remember the super sinny little 6 year that started coming to our church. He was my really good buddy when he was little! And the time that he has been with our family has been so awesome! I always wanted a brother and he fit the bill perfectly! :)
Last Friday was his Senior night so we all came to watch him and bring presents. That's what you do on senior night! :) It was fun, although a little busy with all the kiddos!
Jacob is a really good player - the kid has skillz. :) He is very excited to graduate and is hoping to go to Corbon College in the Portland area. We are going to miss having him around! He is such a great uncle to the kids. They love him!


Monday, February 14, 2011

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Kiddos

Oh, wow. These kids are growing up SO fast! Cameron is something else. Love him! He is OBSESSED with basketball. And he is good at it too! He can dribble very well, he can shoot and score. It's really cute! We never even encouraged it he has LOVED any kind of ball since he could crawl. Isn't funny how kids develop their own likes from the beginning? Cam is a talker. He has a huge vocabulary and talks all day! The other day we pulled up to my parents house and Cam exlaimes "Grandpas house - great job mommy, great job!" SO cute - the encouragement was wonderful! :) He is gonna be a smart one too. He picks up on everything. He remembers stuff too, so I have to be careful what I tell him. He's been learning his letters - we've worked on A,B, and C so far. He is usually a pretty happy kid, the last couple months he has turned pretty whiney and have been working through being selfish but he'll get there. Sharing is pretty hard work and there are a whole lot of two year olds in this house! Cameron is very attached to me which I have to admit I like. He seems to be pretty sensitive and crys pretty easily. It breaks his heart (and mine) when he is disciplined. He says sorry and moves on very quickly which I love about him. Loves our "school" time and asks for everyday. LOVES coffee (even though he doesn't really get to drink it :)) and get's a "mocha" every morning and evening. A mocha for the kids at our house is a little ovaltine in their milk. (Can you tell there is way too much mocha and coffee drinking going on here???) He is great at praying, is learning to sing Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Very little parts of the song but he's learning and it's way cute. He saw people raising their hands in church on Sunday, I looked over a few minutes later and he had his hands raised too. Haha...love it! This kids is great love him so much!!!

My silly, blue eyed, wonderful, moody, stubborn, funny little girl. She is so full of energy and character. Love her. She is a bit extreme, kinda like her Daddy. There is black and white - no gray. She is either really happy or really not. :) She can be SO silly. When she is in that mood she just runs around the house acting crazy. Running, randomly running through the house is a favorite past time of hers. (The boys join in too!) She has a great laugh and I love hearing it. She loves to color, she would spend hours coloring if I let her. She really consintrates when she colors or does her school work. Lately she has been "writing" a's and b's on her paper. She just sits there and writes and says ab,ab,ab,ab. CUTE! She is starting to talk more, still kind of a quite kid but more and more everyday. She is usually bossy when she talks. Ha. Yelling NO at the boys or somthing to that effect! She says "bum" for come. She says "Mommy bum, Mommy bum?" (always making sure I am going to go with her when I say we are going somewhere. She get's very worried about it) anyway, for the longest time I thought she was talking about my rear end. :) We refer to the kids rearends as bums. I just recently figured out she was asking if I was coming. So many people wanted to know that I am sure but I think it's funny! She prefers milk to the mochas I talked about earlier. Crazy kid! She not huge fan of sitting still and reading but has one particular book that she LOVES. She will set and read it forever and this kid does not do that! She is always on the go. The book is a toddler advent book I bought for Christmas and she LOVES it. She is not really into movies, she sits and watches for about 10 minutes and then comes to see what I am doing. She always wants to be involved in whatever I am doing. She wants to help cook, put on makeup, make dinner, clean. Doesn't matter if I am doing she wants in on it. It's hard sometimes because if I let her do anything then the boys want to do it and that can cause problems. :) But I like that she wants to be with me and follow me around, it's sweet. She loves to pray too, our prayers are interesting at our house these days. There is a chorus of voices when anyone else is praying becuase the kids have gotten so used to repeating what we say as we are praying. So now even if it's not technically their turn to pray they do. LOVE it!
Blake is my sweet, sweet boy! He is s0 a thoughtful, I love that! He is forever running up to me and giving hugs and kisses. Always wants to sit with me and hold my hand. Loves to hug Cam and Madison too. They don't always love to hug back but we are getting there. :) He is great at sharing with the other kids even if he is playing with it at the moment. Blake loves music - music of all kinds! He loves to dance to it, sing with it, jump in his crib to the beat. He is always asking me to turn on a cd - that's what he calls music his "dd". They have a cat shaped piano that he plays on all day and sings into the attached microphone. Blake is not my adventerous one! When they are jumping off things together the other two jump and then Blake climbs down behind them but thinks he jumping. It's pretty cute! Blake has more of a black and white personality like his sister (and Daddy) too! He is either very, very obedient and nice or the complete opposite. I have to say that I am much more fond of the very, very obedient! He is enjoying his school time too - he like to have me help him write his letters and repeat them after me. He is getting pretty good he is even starting to recognize some of the letters. He is learning his songs too, loves Jesus Loves Me, ABC Song, Twinkle Twinkle (his favorite) and Row Row Row Your Boat. Most of these songs I haven't even worked on with them. It's amazing how kids just soak things up. Good reminder to be careful what they are exposed to. We have a couple different CDs they listen to a lot and apparently they are sticking. Blake is my big reader too. He likes to find a quiet spot by himself and spend a good amount of time reading them. His favorite book is his little toddler Bible. He is not talking a lot but he's getting there. He does say "All right" alllll the time! When I ask him to do something he says "Ah ite" (not sure how to spell but that's how it sounds) with a big smile on his face. And have I mentioned how much I love his crazy hair! This kids hair is impossible to to control - it's so cute and I love it. Blake has turned into a SUPER eater! He has always been our hard one to get to chew AND swallow his food. He seems to be a little picky too. But lately he eats anything and everything and puts HUGE portions down. Must be on a growth spurt... I wonder what it's going to be like when I have three teenagers in the house. Oh my.
These kids are such a blessing. They are so fun and I just can't imagine life without them! This season - the season of two year olds - has been hard. I am being stretched and hopefully growing. I don't really like the stretching but who does right? It's very uncomfortable in fact but I hope to look back on this time and see how the Lord worked in my life. And even on my hardest days I do know he is working. And I do have three EXTREMELY sweet smiles and sets of kisses and hugs that I get daily are irreplaceable. Nothing compares to the love of my children. Thankful that God gave them to us!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

{Project 365} WAY behind

{Sigh}
I am WAY behind!
It's been a mix of really busy, losing my camera (then finding it) and just plain not feeling like it.
Some days, I just don't wan to. :)
But I thought I better at least post some pics.
Blake and Mommy - love this boy!
Having some one on one time with with Mom and Dad tonight (2.1.11)
LOVING my Cricut machine! Have had it for over a year and have finally started using it.
Valentines fun!!
Have I ever mentioned I LOVE Valentines Day???? I do!
Our AWESOME Grammy and Cameron
Great Grandpa aka Papa. He.is.awesome! The kids love him so much!
Bowling!
My new favorite yogurt. SO SO good! Love it - go try some!
We've been going to basketball games, had a couple date nights, had a great girls night with Kristen, a family dinner, progress on our house (YAY!) and a whole lot more! I will try and do better!