A Boy of Many Colors

How did I get so lucky to have this little boy in my life? He is such a blessing to our family and seeing him standing with this hat of oh-so-many colors reminds me of what a colorful little boy he is .... funny, sweet, loving, stubborn, smart, friendly, outspoken, intuitive, and don't forget, super squeezable. I had to just share this picture with you - I can't help but smile when looking into those dark brown eyes and I know you won't be able to either. Noah - what a true gift God has given us!

Sneaky Sleeper

I can't believe I forgot to blog about what happened here, because it's pretty funny. One night, about a month ago, after we had tucked the boys in bed and settled in our positions on the couches for our nightly routine of TV, Chris happened to notice that Hayden's bedroom door was open. Upon further investigation, we realized Hayden was not sleeping in his bed, but on the floor, behind our end table which is tucked into a corner between the couches. The kid had snuck out of his room, crawled into position on the floor probably hoping we wouldn't notice so he could catch some of the TV we were watching, but ended up falling asleep instead. I have no idea how long he was laying down there, but as you can see by the time we found him, he was sound asleep. Needless to say, Chris and I both got a good laugh about it and after snapping a few pictures, Hayden was hauled back to bed and tucked in again for the second time that night, all the while still sound asleep. What a sneaky little sleeper!

Children's Museum

This weekend, the boys and I had the chance to visit the Children's Museum of Phoenix to help celebrate a 1st birthday with a little friend of ours. Lia, my friend/teaching partner Jennifer's daughter, turned 'ONE' on April 23rd and her party started off with a birthday breakfast on Saturday followed by a caravan of friends over to the museum to finish celebrating. Wow - this place is amazing! The boys had a blast exploring, playing, pretending, and checking everything out ... every major city should have this kind of hands-on, completely "kid friendly" place for children to visit and truly just be able to play! Hayden and Noah's favorite area was the "Noodle Forest" - an area set up with pool noodles hanging from the ceiling in which you just run back and forth and through over and over and over ... they loved it! Noah also liked the grocery store area, where he got to push his cart and go shopping.

We didn't get to stay as long as we all would have liked, unfortunately, but we will definitely be heading back to make a day of it, this time bringing Daddy along. The boys are also excited at the thought of taking their cousins, Sammy and Lily, to the museum for a visit when they come see us this summer. We can't wait!

Here are some fun pictures from our visit:

breathe ...

"Be still, and know that I am God" Psalms 46:10

Over the weekend of April 17, 18, and 19, I had the opportunity to join my dear friend Nicole, and her sweet baby girl Jaelyn, for a women's retreat hosted by the church we've been attending, Christ's Church of the Valley. It was held up in Williams, in beautiful northern Arizona (cooler too!) and was my first time away from both the boys, but a time that was much needed and well worth it!

The theme of the weekend was "breathe" with Psalm 46:10 as our objective and reminder throughout the days we had together. It was a wonderful chance to worship in community with other women, to celebrate the gift we are to each other, and to praise God for everything we have in our lives. An adorable couple, JJ and Dave Heller, led our worship time each day with their Christian/Folk music (check her out - JJ Heller - amazing voice!). Our keynote speaker for the weekend was a wonderfully funny woman and novelist, Susan May Warren, who used stories from her life as a missionary in Siberia to give us faithful reminders of God's beauty, power, and grace. We were able to take note of the "worldly voices" that tend to overcome us, i.e. voices of comparison, doubt, shame, greed, dread, perfectionism, etc. and how when we (as women) listen to these voices, and not to God's voice, we easily forget the beauty, and power, and grace of His love for us. I came home renewed, refreshed, and ready to tackle those voices by exhaling them out and inhaling in all that God has planned for me. The weekend was full of wonderful fellowship, yummy food, singing, worship, and reflection, only to be topped off by an evening on Saturday of "BLING" Bunco and Left-Right-Center (a new dice game I learned that was super fun).

I went up to this retreat, having no idea what to expect, or what the weekend had in store for me. After it was over, I came home knowing that if I am still, and if I take time to listen, I will hear and know what God has in store for me, and for today, believing in Him and knowing His love surrounds me is enough.

Saturday Night's Event: "Bling Bunco"
Young Life Camp in Williams, AZ

Monkey Moments

I have to share a few spectacular, sweet, and just downright cute moments we've seen from our little Monkey lately.

• Expressing his love ... it's one thing when you tell your child you love them, and they repeat back to you, but it's an entirely different feeling when it comes from them unprompted. In the past few days, Noah has been saying "I luff you" (emphasis on the /f/ sound in luff) to me, Chris, and even bruder. I am not sure I will ever hear such sweeter words that those.


• Saying grace ... we've recently started saying grace before dinner, with Hayden mostly leading us in the good ol' prayers we all remember from childhood, at least ones I remember saying with my family. At first, Noah would just start eating (imagine!) and then would randomly fold his hands in the middle of the meal and say "Amen" to himself. Tonight, after folding our hands and bowing our heads, he says "bwess our food, amen" with his little hands folded and held up high near his forehead. Note the picture of him below, taken before bed tonight to give you an idea of what you'd see if he was saying grace with you. Don't you love the eyes peeking out from around his little hands?
• Using the potty ... yesterday, then again today, he comes running in to me and says he needs to use the potty. Thinking he is just going to sit there for a second and then say "I all done mama" as he has done in the past, he starts removing all his clothes (not sure why the shirt comes off to use the potty, but hey, if it makes him more comfortable that is fine with me) and sits on down. Well what do you know but a few minutes later we have success - now, I am not sure how consistent it will be, but the fact that he's told me on two different days and actually gone, tells me he is getting ready to potty-train. HOORAY - this means diaper days in our house will soon be a thing of the past. Until our next baby that is .... ha ha ha, just kidding (for now ...).

Easter

Easter morning started early in our house with an excited little boy smiling from ear-to-ear ... awaking mommy bright and early before 6:00 am to get the day going. Hayden left temporarily and came running back in with his Easter basket with "look Mommy what I got!" ... so up from bed I am, grab the camera, head in to pluck Noah from his crib, and Easter morning begins! Peeking giddily through their baskets of treats and admiring their new buckets and shovels, my little boys had so much fun. Noah loved his chocolate bunny so much he clean ripped the head right off, to then enjoy a few broken pieces before his morning milk. We then set out to enjoy the morning for a few hours, relaxing together before getting ready for Easter brunch at Grammy & Grampy's house. A bit later, after dressing in new outfits we headed over for our annual Easter brunch and awaited eagerly for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs before beginning the official egg hunt. This year we also had our friends join us, my teaching partner and good friend Jennifer with her husband, Bill, and their two adorable little girls, Ellie and Lia. Jen and Bill don't have family nearby, so it was nice to offer up a tradition of my family to them and I was glad they accepted - the boys had fun with the girls, and though Lia wasn't quite able to search for eggs this year, I have no doubt by next Easter she'll have it all figured out. Following the highly anticipated egg hunt, and sneaking in a few jellybeans and other treats, we all settled in at the table for a wonderful brunch and succeeded in stuffing ourselves so full that our only option following was to sit outside and enjoy the marvelous weather, sunny with a perfectly mild temperature and slight breeze. So we sat and talked and watched the kids play, with Jen and her family for a while, and then inside as Noah napped and the rest of us watched golf. The only thing better would have been to have my family there too - otherwise, Easter was a day in which I felt truly blessed by God and Jesus for everything in my life.

Preparing for Easter

We had a fun start to Easter this weekend with some of our best friends, the Andersons ... Heather, Lance, Tatum, and Carter joined us late in the afternoon and we all went up to an Easter service at church to kick-off the holiday. We charged through the rainy weather, cooler temperatures, and enjoyed an amazing church service together. On our way home we ordered a few pizzas and after enjoying a few slices of "pie" we set out to color eggs for our respective hunts the following morning.
I fondly remember coloring eggs with my cousins, filling up plastic eggs with my family close by and then setting out the following morning to hunt them down in our backyard at home with my siblings and cousins and extended family in toe ... because the boys don't have cousins to share this tradition with, I am ever so grateful we have developed such close relationships here with our friends, that they truly do feel like part of our family. Heather and I have been friends for years - I can't imagine my life without her - and, it's amazing that our friendship brought together our husbands, who have become such great friends too, as well our children.

The older kids took to coloring the eggs immediately, knew what colors they wanted and how to place the eggs gently in the dye, but as you can imagine, our little Noah was a different story. He had fun grabbing an egg, dropping it in a mug, grabbing another egg, dropping it in, etc. etc. ... but, with only one egg tragedy, we managed to get two dozen eggs colored successfully and had a lot of fun watching and coloring a few of our own! Here are a few pictures from our "egg-stra" special afternoon together.

Grandma's Easter Treat

An Easter package arrived in the mail with wrapped treats for the boys as they each had their own to open, which included a card (and money that they both get so excited over) as well as new outfits with matching Crocs. Noah's Crocs are "Wall-E" themed and an adorable bright blue ... here is the little man modeling his new shoes from Grandma - check out his upside down sunglasses. Isn't he just the cutest??