Somebody's 3!!!!!!

Wyatt James turned 3 years old on August 16!!!!

From 9.5 lbs little infant to.... 

  My sweet little first born is a walking, talking, running, playing, singing, potty trained, imaginative boy now!  

What better way to celebrate the BIG 3 then at a park with the fam:)

 With a wrestling match with the little bro!

 A picnic on the porch

 Super yummy dinosaur cake

 A big splashy bath

 AND  PRESENTS!!!!

 AND PLAYING WITH PRESENTS:)

 To extend the birthDAY into a birthWEEK:) Spent with a fun-loving cuz

 eating McDonalds and playing till sweat trickles down your face

 and topping it all of with...of course, MORE CAKE!!!

Happy Sweet 3 to you, my son.  Mommy and Daddy are so in love with you and cannot wait to see what the Lord brings our way with you in this next year!!!!

Sweet Gifts From Above

These past four or so weeks have been spent in a mini van, in someone else's bed, in someone else's home.  Having a 3 year old and a 1 year old has made me stretch my patience and pray outloud in many circumstances.

These times spent away from our home have been some of the best and most sweetly treasured times I have ever had.  I wouldn't do it any other way.

My sweet Aunt Sharon has been battling breast cancer for the past 2 years and finally the Lord has taken her home.  We spent a week in Branson visiting with her in her own home and just enjoying her and loving her.

She decided that it was time to move in with my parents a week later.  That meant moving out of her home and making a very long and hard trip 4 hours to Hillsboro.  The doctors knew that there was no more they could do to treat her cancer.

The littles and I knew then that any and every chance we could get to travel and see her 3 hours south in Hillsboro was worth the trip, effort, out-of-routineness and time away from our sweet Daddy.

The past 3 weeks were a very rapid and steady decline of her physically, but she was still sassy as ever:)  It is a sweet gift from God that He allowed me to be there with her so much and to just be an encouragement, a caretaker, a pray-er and a singer of hymns (even when she told me they sounded awful at one time:) I was having a very hard time choosing to leave and come back home.  The day that I would have left I decided to just stay one more day.  That evening I was by her side when she was ushered in to her Savior.

 

I cannot say enough thanks to God for allowing me to be there with her and to have the chance to say goodbye.  It was a very emotional and hard time, but I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else then right there.  The neat treasures that my aunt has left to her family in memories and pictures and sunflower mementos will forever be treasured. 

VBS and Big Words:)

 

 A sweet picture of our boys on their first ever day of Vacation Bible School at our church.  Wyatt even has a nice big camo backpack to carry all his treasures home in:)  The are growing up so fast!!!!

The video is just a mommy and daddy amazed at the big words coming out of their little guy's mouth!  Sure we think he is smart....and we aren't the least bit biased:)

Let's Celebrate America's Birthday!

We decided to document this fun family day in pictures.  It is a rare occasion that we are home for a holiday so we really took advantage of it and lived it up as much as a 1 and 2 year old would allow:)

We started the day on a rollerblade/bike ride along the riverfront before it got too hot out.

Tuck and his sweet, sweaty, red cheeks after the riverfront excursion:)

Wyatt got to play on the playground for a few minutes before heading off to lunch.

Anyone who dressed at Spiderman today at Hardees got a free Thickburger!!! 

Daddy shamelessly used his son to get a thickburger - at least Daddy was willing to share a bite to eat with his cute little Spiderman:)

At one of the local cemeteries they have a hillside specially dedicated to the heros who fought for our country.  This was in the Civil War section

Sweet brotherly love at is finest:)

The boys exploring and getting an impromptu lesson our our nation's history and the men and women who fought and those who died for our nation's freedom.

My sweet Wyatt:)

After a round of naps for all, Wyatt is helping Daddy build a new gate for our carport:)

After all the hard playing and working it's time for a cool dip in the pool:)

Tuck's weapon of choice in the pool....golf clubs! That didn't last too long before someone got hurt:)

Grilling out for dinner...everything is better with ketchup on it:)

Hotdogs and brats all around!!!

We topped off the night with TV fireworks and oreo fudge brownies:)
What a blessed day we had together as a family and getting to make sweet memories to cherish for always:)

A Sweet Father's Day for a Sweet Father:)

Oh what a sweet daddy these 2 little men have!!!  I am so very thankful to have him as the example to these little boys.  The leadership and guidance and love and patience that Jonathan gives his children is a beautiful example to me and one that I pray one day our children will recognize, respect and desire to emulate.  God has gifted us with a hard working, loving, fun, active, and godly man to provide and care for us!  We are richly blessed!!!!

We spent our Father's Day going to church and then coming home for some yummy marinated steak, ranch potatoes and home-grown-straight from our very own garden broccoli!  Oh, yum:)

Jonny then did what any father would probably want to do on "his" day.....play softball:)

After softball we enjoyed some sweet cinnamon roll cake for dessert before heading off to the pool for some fun in the sun and water:)  Topping off the day with a Big Mac and fries for dinner! Yes, I'd say that this daddy is one special, worth it all dad:):)

A Trip to the Zoo

Wyatt has a huge fascination with animals.  He absolutely loves getting books from the library that are all about whales, dolphins, wild animals, zoos and aquariums.  He will sit and look at a big book filled with words as long as it has enough cool pictures of jelly fish and beluga whales:)  

There was a free day at our local zoo and we took advantage of it with some friends. 

 Wy could NOT stop talking about going to the zoo and seeing all the animals!! While we were there he would look at one exhibit and then ask what the next one was....over and over and over:)   

You can just barely see a male lion right behind him in the glass!!!!

 The one animal that he apparently really wanted to see was the hippos....but, sorry to say, our zoo does not have hippos. Which I had to continually remind him of this sad little fact:(  

It didn't have whales either, but it did have a fun little blue whale and blue dolphin that he could sit on:)

 

Enjoying watching the giraffes eat and gazelles graze:)

All in all it was a great day and one that he still is CONTINUALLY talking about:)

A New Member...

We are excited to add a new member to our family in early January.  The 7th of January is the expected arrival...but I always view a due date as totally myth:)  I don't want my expectations to get dashed if he/she decides to take longer! 

Welcome Sweet Sugar #3!!!!

"I need to GO!!"

That is the current mantra in our house today.  

A spur of the moment decision on Monday to "just go for it" brings us to day 5 on the journey of potty training!

To say that this was easy is a big ol' lie!!!!

However, to sit in this seat 5 days after Monday I will say that our journey was a lot easier than some others I have heard.

Monday is a day that I never want to relive...too many accidents, too many changes of clothes, too many sprays of cleaner and rags used, too many "Almost buddy...next time you will get it."

We were both exhausted after Monday.

I do believe that Wednesday was the turning point...it finally "clicked."

I sit here on day 5 and can say that there have been no "accidents" since Tuesday.  What joy of all joys that means after a day like Monday:)  I won't sit here and feel all confident and that we got this thing in the bag. I am not that naive. But, I will sit here and HOPE AND PRAY AND HOPE AND PRAY some more that we will have this thing down by the time he is 20:):):):

Growing Up:(

The truth is that my little babies are growing up.

 Wyatt is changing daily and telling us his own opinions.

He is using his imagination to play with T-Rex and the Big Fish (which of course like to chase him all over the house:)

Wy is learning how nice and important it is to share with his little brother, then asking to share all on his own!

He is starting to 'read' stories to himself and Tuck.

He is saying on his own without prompting from Mom or Dad sweet words like "I love you" and "Have a good day."

His picky eating skills are finally starting to calm themselves!

He is developing quite a love for drawing circles and triangles:)

He can spell his first name!

 Tucker is our little wrecking ball.  He loves to destroy.

He loves to wrestle and frequently seems to get Wyatt pinned:)

He has filled his little mouth with 7 teeth.

He is Mr. Adventure and loves to try and do everything that his brother does!

His sweet smiles and giggles never fail to  change my mood:)

He still refuses to sit still for books...but he loves songs!

He has come up with his own language and loves to scream it out...especially in the backseat of our van:)

When he thinks he hears Daddy come home he makes a beeline for the door giggling, laughing and saying Da-Da-Da...lets just wrap Daddy a little tighter around that chubby little finger:)

All this change and growing up can leave a mommy in a bit of hysterics!!!  The baby that was ~ is no more:(  But, what joy is mine when I look on the "new" from my little guys and see all that they are becoming.  God has immensely blessed us as parents to see and experience first hand the transformation from baby to toddlerhood to preschool.  God is so good!! 

So, to my little men...who seems to steal my heart daily ~ I love you with love that only God can comprehend.  I rejoice in the boys that you are growing in to. I pray for the youth and man that you will both one day become.  May the Lord be your Good Shepherd and your everpresent Help.  You are cherished beyond words!!

Our Big Bad Trip to the East:)

     We spent 8 wonderful days travelling to the East Coast to to FINALLY meet almost all of the rest of Jonny's family that the little boys and I have never met before.

We left on Sunday and after about 6 hours of travel had a wonderful stop over in Ohio to visit with a childhood friend of Jonny's...

Jonathan and Paul

Paul and Renee's dog, Moses:)  Wyatt really enjoyed getting to take him on a walk!

Renee and Tuck doing some bedtime reading:)

We took another 7 hours on Monday and arrived at Trevor and Karissa's new house in Philly.  

More on that later:)

 We left at about 4:30 am on Tuesday morning and drove to Washington, DC to hang out with Alli and Jonny's Aunt Gina and her friend Barbara.  We had an AMAZING time walking ALL OVER DC!!  We saw soooo many amazing sites and ate a lot of yummy food and had amazing tours at the White House and the Capitol.  What a great time we had made all the better by our great tour guide Alli and being with Aunt Gina!

Arlington National Cemetary

Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington.

Witnessing our own piece of history! The space shuttle was flown in to DC and we got to see it as it flew over the Pentagon!!

Our group who toured the Capitol and White House (Jonny's Aunt Gina is in the middle, his Aunt Sue and Uncle Tim on the far right, with Alli, Barbara, and Francis-Heidi's friend from Uganda). We are standing on the Speaker's Balcony (Speaker of the House John Boehner) at the Capitol

In front of Lincoln's Memorial

On Wednesday we arrived around 11:30 pm back at Karissa and Trevor's.  In case you didn't figure it out...we left our boys with Karissa for 2 days, which means that she was watching 5 kids all under the age of 7!!! She is our hero:):)

Tucky and Auntie Fwissa:)

While there we enjoyed a fun trip to Longwood Gardens.  A beautiful and big garden that the kiddos enjoyed running all over in and seeing lots of pretty flowers.  Plus, we made a yummy trip to Rita's...a super yummy custard place:)

The brood at Longwood Gardens!

Tuck looks like he is ready to run away!  At least we are all looking in the same direction!

RITAS!!!!!!!!!!!

We left their house on Friday and headed to Jonny's Uncle John and Aunt Sue's house about an hour and a half  away.  We arrived just in time for an amazing grilled pork dinner and some fun times to just get to know (for the boys and I) and reacquaint ourselves with them. The last time Jonny had seem them was about 8 years ago!!

Tucker, Madaket, Luke, Uncle John, Jonny, Wyatt, and Aunt Sue

Wyatt got to go to the Fish Hatchery and feed some crazy trout yummy food:)

 Saturday was a great day hanging out with a lot more family and food and fun:)

BePa, MomMom, Jonny, Tuck, Christen and Wyatt

Aunt Gina and Jesse with Tuck!

Anna and MomMom with Tuck...he is so good about smiling for the camera!

We must brag on our boys....we spent many hours logged in the van and for all those hours in the van, missing nap times, and LOTS of new people met....I would say that they were amazing!!!!  I had very low expectations on how I thought things would go down with sleepy, cranky, fussy kids....and I was very happily disappointed:)

We headed toward home on Sunday morning with a fun layover in Toledo to see Jonny's mom and dad before the headed off on their big vacation to Switzerland!!  They were so gracious to have us even though they needed to pack.  It was fun to just sit on their bedroom floor while they packed and talk and look through old photo albums:)

Monday morning brought us back in the van on our finally leg of the journey...just 6 hours.  But, the DVD player became our companion for just about that long. I think that we ALL  were ready for our big adventure to reach home:)