The Giffen Family

1 Month...

2012-02-16T18:24:00.000-06:00

Eli turned a month old at the beginning of this month, February 5, and while facebook got the word I've yet to document it here (which should have been the first thing I did).
What 1month has been for E...
- Sleeping "through the night": he gives us about 6hrs straight each night
- Coo's and "talks" to the letters on his wall above his changing table
- Gets loved on A LOT by a very proud big brother!
- Still sleeps in mommy and daddy's room (which I'm totally ok with, he likes his cradle)
- He has met all his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (1 set via facetime - counts, right?)
- Eats really well
- Has smiled a few times; but we haven't figured out what exactly triggers smiling for him (other than gas obviously)
- Oh the GAS, and tummy trouble! This has led momma to change her diet to see it helps, it's been nice knowing ya dairy!
- He weighs about 9lbs (so says our scale), which means he's packed on 2lbs in a month!
- He is a major momma's boy...which is rough for daddy when it comes to settling him down
- He still wears Newborn clothes and was in preemie until 1 week before turning 1mo old, which is just crazy to me.

- He is SO loved and such a precious gift from God!

Branding

2012-02-09T20:16:00.000-06:00

I have a sweet friend who coined the phrase "branding" in reference to people who have children who look alike. As in "you have a brand of children", for us she would be right! Our boys come in 1 make/model - size large or small :)

The pictures above are both boys at 1 month of age. Will is the top and Eli the bottom - try as I might I couldn't get the bottom cutie to look the same direction as his cutie brother did (4 years ago).

We've seen from the start that the boys have the same hairline, even matching cowlicks. The both have their daddy's shape of eyes, Will's are green and the verdict is still out on what color Eli will have (Ryan has brown and I have blue). I'm noticing now that their ears even look similar. It's obvious these boys are brothers for sure :)

My Boys...

2012-01-31T11:09:00.000-06:00

Yup that's right -- boyS, and I have 'em! :) I can't tell you how many times I've said it over the past months (but it's been a lot) - I just can't believe I have boys...sons. I'm pretty sure when I was daydreaming about my family in Algebra class in high school it didn't look anything like this. Just shows what a jokester God is...oh His humor is so great! Would I trade my boys for that family that kept me distracted from replacing numbers with letters, heavens no! I adore my boys, Will & Eli, they are precious, loving, caring, funny, sweet, tough, goofy, tender hearted, rough & tumble, smart, and SO much more. Eli may only be 3.5weeks old - but I can see so much about the lil' person God has created him to be. My big buddy, Will, is definitely all those things and he is also an amazing big brother (as if I ever imagined it to be another way).

It's just pure sweetness & adoration

I pray that the boys continue to love each other, grow to be buddies, and respect & encourage the people that God has created them to be.

{h}E's here!!

2012-01-24T19:45:00.000-06:00

Eli Fenton Giffen came into this world at 12:21pm on January 5, 2012; weighing 7lbs 3oz and 19in long.

We joked that we make 1 model of boy - just in 2 sizes; large (Will 9lb 3oz) and mini (Eli 7lb 3oz). They looked surprisingly similar at birth with the same hairline & cowlick, but Eli is definitely beginning to take on his own look.

Eli is mild mannered, has such a sweet temperament, loves to snuggle, and could quite possibly be a mamas boy :)

If you want to check out more pictures from his arrival and the time up till now visit our gallery here (user name: eli / password: fentongiffen)

Merry Christmas!! (just a wee bit late)

2011-12-29T17:03:00.000-06:00

Will's Christmas Program...

2011-12-20T17:40:00.000-06:00

Will had his Christmas Program for preschool on Thursday. Last year we were super surprised when a letter was sent home that he had a speaking part. Of course we were even more impressed to see that he was 1 of 2. This year most everyone had a speaking part and we made sure to practice his line everyday. He kept getting the words flipped but he did wonderfully upon delivery! It was very sweet to hear the truth that the children were sharing.
If you know our boy he loves to sing (& dance) so I'm not sure where the reservation is coming from - but I'm thinking a combo of the setting and having some time out due to sickness made him a bit nervous.
Enjoy!!

(as a side note the beginning is my all time favorite - what mama doesn't want to be "looked for", waved at and told "I love you"...super precious!!)

Elf Mischief...

2011-12-13T19:19:00.000-06:00

We have this funny little elf that showed up 3 years ago and I tell ya he just keeps getting sillier as each year passes. When he "left" last year (to live at the North Pole for the year) we had NO IDEA what he'd be back with. So far Redd (our elf) has put colored lights & paper snowflakes on Grandma & Grandpa's tree (quite the sense of humor he has since colored light fans they are not ;)), zip-lined from their loft to the kitchen (via a string of lights), strung up some of Will's favorite toy story friends from the ceiling fan, taken a flight through the house on Buzz Lightyear, decorated a little corner of our kitchen with a mini-tree & other Christmas decor), took a horsey ride on Buttercup into a wreath, hidden in the dining room centerpiece, and has found various other "hide-outs" around the house. Each morning we are greeted with "mommy, daddy - get up...and let's go find where Redd is" (some days honestly earlier than necessary & a couple times before Redd actually found a good hiding spot)

Here is just a peek at the mischief that he's brought to our home - Will is at such a fun age to really enjoy all his silly antics and gets a kick out of what he's been up to while waiting for Will to wake up (well of course after he returns from the North Pole and has a little chat with big guy in the red suit).

This is just one of the fun little things our family likes to do this time of year; hoping that each tradition we do is a fond memory in the life of son(s).

Salt Dough Ornaments

2011-12-08T10:00:00.001-06:00

I've always wanted to make these and this week was the perfect opportunity! Cold & snowy outside and coughing & germ filled inside equals KID CRAFT!! I wracked my brain to think of something to do; hit pinterest and even checked some "home-schooling sites" - not one of them had something we could tackle. No finger paint to make a tree/wreath/snowman etc...no acrylic paints (in the right color) to make a craft that will "stick" around...and baking to eat or share with anyone wasn't a good idea since we are still germ filled!

I've seen examples of cornstarch ornaments - but couldn't find a recipe that catered itself to my pantry (or was complete). So when I saw this recipe with 3 ingredients I knew we could tackle it! Despite not having enough salt (first time I've ever needed such a large amount for a recipe) and adding a bit more water to the batter ours turned our pretty cute! We made one of Will's hand print and it's super sweet for us - but I didn't get a pic of it (details were hard to see in picture form)

Salt Dough Ornaments - 4 servings (basically 4 large ornaments)

1 C Flour

1/2 C Salt

1/3 C water

couple drops of food coloring (optional)

sparkles (optional)

Mix first 2 ingredients together and gradually add water - kneading with hands or a spoon. Dough will be thick once combined (once you've reached this consistancy you can add the optional ingredients). At this point I grabbed it out of the bowl and plopped it on my cookie mat and rolled it out. Then we cut out the shapes.

Bake at 300 for 25mins and then flip the "cookies" and bake for another 25mins (or until cookies are firm & strong)

Make sure you poke a hole in the top of your cookie prior to baking so you can slide a ribbon, string, or yarn through.

I think we will do this again sometime - possible add coloring to some of the dough for fun or paint them after baking them. However, the next time we use cookie cutters we are gonna need to eat those yummy cookies :) Both of us were wishing they were treats to eat when I pulled them from the oven.

First snow...

2011-12-07T11:05:00.000-06:00

Enjoying another day in thanks to some pretty snow falling from the sky! (the picture really doesn't do it justice - it's falling fast) It's not bad enough to not go anywhere (in fact it's barely sticking) it's just fun to be able to sit in a warm house today and watch the snow - especially since we have no where we HAVE to go. Clearly if we had some place to go I'd have to interrupt some major car action (and we'd have quite the mess to take care of) :)

Hoping this extra day of rest will be good for Will to return to school tomorrow.

Sick day...

2011-12-06T17:22:00.000-06:00

This is how you could best describe our day yesterday - times 3. We took turns "waiting" on each other and Ryan managed to still work from home. Ryan & I got off easy with once a day meds - poor Mr. Will has to take his twice and he says "it's the worst medicine he's ever tasted". It doesn't smell bad (although Ryan claims it does) but I'm just not a personal fan of amoxicillian - glad it works for my little guy tho!
I was certain when I woke up yesterday in a coughing fit & constantly blowing my nose that I was going to send myself into labor. After about 30mins of contractions I forced myself to stop coughing - which is about as successful as trying not to laugh in class/church...but they stopped so it was fine.
Poor Will was so sad to miss school today - but he has to be fever free for 24hrs and on antibiotics for 24hrs before returning to school, so we sat today out. We've kept busy with fun activities, playing with toys (the fam room looks a bit like a toy store threw up), popsicle shopping (a very important part of having strep), and taking a long nap (in my mind the MOST important part).

Hoping each day gets better for us - since we have just less than a month before baby boy arrives and I want us all well!

Like what ya see...

2011-11-20T15:52:00.000-06:00

If you like the new pictures then you'll LOVE seeing this gals work! She did family pictures for us last year and after loving what she captured we knew we wanted to work with her again, so it's a good thing we are friends! Check out Heather Wagoner Photography's Site or you can even find her on facebook where you can locate more from our session! Enjoy! :)

D is for Dentist

2011-11-16T18:18:00.000-06:00

This week brought our first trip to the dentist; we like to make "firsts" extra special as to allieviate any concern, anxiety or fear. So Ryan and I decided that we would both attend this first visit (and possibly the next 1 in 6mo, since I'll be toting a 4mo old with me - plus it's on Ryan & I's anniversary so it would be such a fab date :)) to answer all the questions we knew he would have and to keep him calm. The particular dentist that our family is going to caters to kiddos (which is perfect for Ryan & I too). Not only is the staff super friendly but there is a completely free arcade room, fun toys, and a couple ride on toys (again no coins required). If that isn't enough there is a giant aquarium in the middle of the waiting area with a ledge for kids to stand on and check out all the fish. Like I said -- very cool!

Taking a ride on the horse after a great appointment!

Now even though it's super cool for kids that isn't why we picked this place; after all the dental work I have had over the last year once they "released" me to a regular dentist this is where my oral surgeon preferred for me to go (she is use to working with that particularly practice and if we are going to continue to pay for her retirement home then I needed to probably stick with a place that was in a good working relationship). After my final appt with our new dentist, Ryan immediately called to see them & was in that afternoon and made an appointment for Will too. Yup we just made them some happy dentists :)

Back to the appointment...Will did wonderfully. He kept close to us since everything was pretty new to him but they did an amazing job of explaining in kid terms what they were doing during each step. They started by letting him pick a brand new tooth brush and then watching how he brushes his teeth (which leaves a lot to be desired) and then gave him some tips (at this point mom & dad may have gotten some tips too) and more cool stuff (toothpaste, floss, and a timer so he knows how long to brush). After that they took him for xrays and explained that machine as a rocket that takes pictures of your mouth & teeth (ummm can you say they know boy lingo?). Once in the exam room (which is very intimadating) they let him pop up in the chair and watch PBS kids & then showed him his "mouth pictures" which he thought was nice - Ryan & I were a bit more impressed :). At this point Will started getting pretty concerned with all the gear around (overhead lamp, the tools, and a covered tray - peaked his interest) - the dental hygeinist went through an explained eaach tool in a friendly way (squirt gun = water pik, mr sucky; who likes to drink all the water from the water gun = vacuum, mr spiny = the spiny brush) and as she explained each she showed him how it worked and allowed him to touch each with his finger. All I can say is these people have really done some training on how to work with kids - cause they were fabulous. Of course after all that he was totally great with them cleaning his teeth and had zippo complaints.

Giving "Mr. Sucky a kiss" to dry out his mouth (totally surprised he did this - I even hate that feeling)

He learned a lot about keeping his teeth healthy and while I'm super appreciative - I may have been on the receiving end of a couple "lectures" on what I should drink/eat to keep my teeth from staining. Needless to say; if you plan to drink coffee or soda in front of him prepare for a little talk on how your teeth may turn yellow ;) We are super grateful that we've found this place - but also that Will had no cavities! To top that off we got a good report on his chipped front tooth (he broke a tooth when he was 1.5 - we weren't around when it happened so we don't know how/what occurred) and were told that it is a totally healthy tooth and we can just wait till his adult teeth come in.

It was a great first visit and I think the fact that after we left he said "I want to go there everyday" was proof enough that we shouldn't have any problems getting him there :)

Baseball Star...

2011-11-09T10:50:00.000-06:00

Something about being 4 is just filled with indecisiveness. Oh there are some things that he is absolute certain about; but when it comes to a Halloween costume it's just way too hard to pick just one. He's beyond the point where I can go, pick out a costume, and he be content with what he is going to be - AND I am beyond picking out something for major $$ that he won't like (and even if he does - it's 1 day; don't I sound like a lot of Halloween fun?!). So this year he wanted to be about 20 things - it started with wanting to be Jake (from Jake & the Neverland Pirates), then he wanted to be Capt'n Hook, then it was Woody (last years costume), Buzz, soccer player, a ghost (yup we don't do that), a vampire (nope not happening), a big scary monster (hmmm, something tells me with the things he's been scared of recently he'd likely be scared of himself), and so on. Finally Ryan and I hopped in on the suggestions (especially after many of his ideas being definate "no go's"). There was the suggestion of clown, fireman, hamburger, a pirate, and a baseball player. He rejected them ALL! That's when the world series picked up and that's when the excitment in our house reached a new level since seeing Texas & St. Louis in the series was AMAZING. Due to that we decided that whichever team won Will would be a player from that team. He loved the idea (at first) and really embraced it - well that is until Halloween morning when a trillion more ideas sprung into his mind. Finally after a lunch trip to see daddy & a trip to a few sporting good stores he got excited. It was wonderful b/c we only purchased 1 item for this costume; we have baseball pants, a long sleeve baseball shirt, his cardinals shirt & hat, bat & glove - so Ryan thought that adding some batting gloves would be a cheap & nice prop for the look. We found some on sale for $5 and viola - a costume was done! LOVE THAT!!

Our little star looks pretty good for putting the costume together last minute :)

Oh yes - that is one tough Cardinal!

Ask for his autograph now -- he may be too busy in 16-17yrs :)

(don't think it's possible - oh it's in the genes; little diluted but there, M. Fenton [roommate with Bob Forsch] & C. Fenton)

So glad he doesn't seem to mind the eye shadow on his cheeks (actually very insistent that he have it)

After a trip to the Fall Fest at the church with Daddy - the boys came home and we made a quick (chilly) lap around our neighborhood.

Once finally home we ate dinner, handed out some treats from our house, and then sorted his candy. He was great and helped to create a bag for daddy to take to work, gave me a couple pieces, and even set some aside for my parents that were coming into town over the weekend. He also knew exactly what candy he could not have (gum, jaw breakers, sour candy, etc...) and threw it away -- it was great!

We had a good Halloween despite some indecisiveness leading up to it.

Pumpk'n Pick'n...

2011-11-09T10:20:00.000-06:00

Since we moved here in 2008 (wow, that seems like ages ago when a year is put to it) we've been going to the same pumpkin patch each fall. The first fall wasn't as tricky with a 1.5yr old and each year it has become more of an adventure. Making trips out into the jungle or being the only people at the patch it's always a good time. This year was the first year that is was super unseasonably warm. The temps were in the 80's (not really cute fall attire for pictures ;)); but through the sweat and itchy short wear'n legs we managed to pick some mighty fine pumpkins :)

Here are some from the patch (ya know just a month late :))

Texas was playing on this particular Saturday -- so the boys took the opportunity to wear their burnt orange & brown :)

My sweet big pumpkin & I

Once home (& after our previous theifing incident) I borrowed a cricut from a friend (oh the fun I could have with one of my own) and got crafty all over the pumpkins :)

I even got daring and decided to put the initials out there - yes there were some questions about "E" but fortunately a lot of my friends respect the secret keeping :)

Welcoming people to our home!

Will loved helping me stick the stickers to the pumpkins -- but might've also just loved playing in the play room and yelling out the window at me. He thought that was big fun that he could see & talk to me while I was out of the house.

Ice Ice Baby...

2011-10-21T09:46:00.001-05:00

We enjoy a good theatrical production - add ice and people dressed in costume and folks we are SOLD!! Last year we took in "Toy Story on Ice" and we had a great time! So when commericials for "Disney on Ice" started airing we knew we just couldn't miss the opportunity - especially since we were just at Disney this summer (yes so our son pretty much thinks Disney is normal 2 trips to the parks in 4 years and 2 shows on ice; we may have created a monster). Originally buying tickets slipped both Ryan and I's mind and then once we remembered we were really afraid that good seats wouldn't be available. Luckily Ryan was able to secure great seats again and we sat 2nd row from the ice - that rocks by the way!! :) Here are some pictures that tell the story of why we just HAVE to see shows like this.

(This show was great b/c you buy cotton candy, for the worth of your child's college tuition, and you got a free character hat - seriously not a deal to be missed! ;) Mickey made the trip from home to see his best buds -- he really enjoyed the show and felt right at home.)

Mr. Funnyman decided to pull his hat over his face so that he would actually be Nemo :)

Daddy & Will entranced by one of the shows

Having a GREAT time!!

Setting the stage for "It's a small world"

(one of Will's favorite rides, behind anything toy story - of course)

The "children" from each of the different countries

The each of the forms lite up - it was SUPER cool!!

Toward the end of the show they did one of our favorite things at Disney - the "Wishes" firework show. This display is absolutely spectacular at Disney and while it didn't compare to the park we all said "This is from the castle!" I'm probably a bit young at heart - but it really is part of the Disney Magic! :)

Post Show -- we all had a good time the youngest of the gang was just a couple hrs past bedtime and on a bit of a cotton candy high ;)

Fields with Four's!

2011-10-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

One of the cool things about being in Pre-K this year is that they get to take field trips (oh yes, this is cool!) Will's first field trip took place the first week of October and the destination was a local pumpkin patch. Parents were given the chance to go and I immediately knew I was not going to miss this! We rode with 2 of his buddies and their mamas (so I got some friend time too) and got a closer peek at the boys they probably are for their teacher [bless her heart ;)]. Once we arrived at the patch we parked our lunches in the picnic area and headed over to the "outdoor classroom" where we learned about corn, cotton, cows and milk. The kiddos even got to "milk" a "cow"

Here Will is with his teacher, Ms Anne-Marie, milking the cow.

After our brief agricultural education (seriously felt like I was back in central IL in one of my jr high/high school classes - she tried but her agricultural information was just a bit over these kiddos head) - we headed out for a wagon ride, which felt like a field trip all of it's own. We road along corn, cotton, and soy bean fields (again I had major confusion on my location - well except not a lot of cotton growing in my areas of IL) and FINALLY stopped at a field set up with LOTS of pumpkins. Each person got to pick a pumpkin to take home and they weren't the itty bitty kind :)

Enjoying our ride (and trying to break up the trip...tough for the kiddos)

Will with the pumpkins he picked for us - his was the one his hand is on and mine was the taller one.

(notice the past-tense I'm using? 4 days after we brought them home and put them on our front walk they were taken -- talk about a bummed out lil' guy!)

After we returned from the field we enjoyed our sack lunches and then the kids got a chance to wonder through one of their mazes and play on all the fun equippment they have. Will went through the cotton maze twice by himself (he just couldn't stand to wait for me - so I picked some cotton b/c he really wanted some and then headed through). On our way over to play we stopped to see just how tall our big guy is

Yup 3.5 feet tall and that's not even standing straight up. He's a tall one, certainly didn't think that was going to be the case when he was born (19in long).

After this picture he was just about everywhere - they had a tire mountain (made from HUGE tractor tires), a pea gravel park with tubes and a ton of tonka & cat trucks for the kids to play with, and two LONG slides...here Will comes down the slide by himself for the 1st time (the very 1st time every kiddo went down with his teacher - what a fun blast!)

It was a super fun field trip and we even left a bit early and fit in some naps in the afternoon! :) Excited for many more field trips in our future!!

Not your normal "veggie tale"...

2011-09-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

This week our baby boy is the size of an eggplant -- I don't understand where these vegatable related measurements come from, but someone is making a buck off of it. As we cruised the produce section during our weekly trip to the store Will was full of curiousty asking what many of the veggies where (clearly we have limited exposure in our house). It dawned on me that it might be fun for him to see how big an eggplant is since his baby brother is "supposedly" that big. Oddly there weren't any to be found except for in the organic section and I felt bad man-handling one and then putting it back, but I figured it was for a good cause. Interestly enough the only eggplant hanging out were short and round (which if this boy is like his big brother that was an accurate example) - I found a decent sized one and handed it to Will. He quickly said "what's this for, I don't think I'm going to like it". I explained that he didn't have to but that this veggie was actually the size of his baby brother. It was funny to watch his demeanor change; he embraced the eggplant and cradled it. Then looked at it, looked at me, smelled it and said "mommy, baby brother smells bad". I guess I should have clarified that the baby wasn't identical to the eggplant - whoops!

Shortly after our lesson I got a call that I passed my glucose test -- wooohoo!! I guess I shouldn't have been super shocked -- but over the last several years lots of "experts" have weighed in on the size of Will and were quite certain that I should have tested positive for gestational diabetes. Well I have something to tell those "experts" -- we grow 'em big, no sense wasting a good crop ;) I celebrated tonight with a nice large piece of coke cake; which I'm certain would've been prescribed by my doc ;)

This was the perfect cap to a week filled with baby brother prep; lots of new (to us) clothes have been coming through the door, the room is starting to take shape and Will even found something for his little bro...

Of course since it's nearly 40 inches tall - he won't be able to play with it for awhile, but Will (and I) were pretty sure he needed it :)

Can you tell...

2011-09-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

Their little profiles look a lot alike, these greyish side shots may not show a lot - but from the side (so far) they are gonna look like brothers :)

(answer: Will is on the left and Baby Brother is on the right)

When did this happen?

2011-09-06T14:49:00.000-05:00

So last week this kid

Got himself ready to go meet his teacher this year for PRE-K...did you read that? PRE-KINDERGARTEN folks, seriously when did this boy get so ~~big~~ old?! Yes he picked out his Mickey polo, popped the collar up, told me which shorts he wanted, and got his new school shoes on. He was so excited to meet his teacher and more excited when he found out some of his fave buddies are in his class! His new teacher could have her hands full -- not sure if she'll be ready for this.

He immediately got to playing after introducing himself to his teacher, he played for awhile with his friends and then I gave him the 5min warning. When I did he said "okay mommy, I'll see ya later!", no my dear they aren't keeping you today -- it was good that he realized that his pals were leaving too. He talked about going to school for the rest of the week and wondered each morning "is today the day I get to start school?" But he had to wait.

The first day of Pre-K couldn't have come soon enough for this boy

We picked and set out his clothes last night for this morning and of course the chilly weather fooled all of us but fortunately we weren't the only short dressing family today :) This is his grin for a silly daddy over my shoulder - but this is what he gave me at first

Oh he is too cool for school! :)

Well I'm not sure when all this growing up and prepping for kindergarten happened but here we are, exciting times - ready or not, here we come!!

We look forward to a fantastic year and excited about a fun year with new & old buddies and a new teacher :)

** Note the wardrobe --- last Tuesday it was high of 98 and this week it was high of 56 & rainy. He should've been wearing pants and we bundled him in his rain jacket right after the picture taking. What season is this; fall, winter, or spring :)

"Baby Baby"

2011-08-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

We got to see this little baby again a couple weeks ago and each time we do we fall a bit more in love. Just like the lyrics to the song say "the stars are shining for you and just like me I'm sure that they adore you - stop for a minute baby I'm so glad you're mine!" Good ol Amy Grant may have been talking about a love interest - but I take creative license to change it toward our sweet babe.

Each of of us are so excited about this little one and now we are just a bit more connected. We found out the gender a couple weeks ago.

WILL IS GOING TO HAVE A LITTLE BROTHER!!

We told he & my parents with this beautiful cake

I had a dear friend make a cake and then we "claimed" it was my mom's birthday cake and when she cut into it the filling was BLUE!!

We shared the news with Ryan's parents with these

A local cake pop company, who has done several things for us, whipped some up and Ryan was able to take them with him to Dallas to share the news when he went earlier this week.

For the rest of the family we had this little cutie call and deliver the news

He couldn't be more excited about his baby brudder and gives him lots of hugs and talks all the time about what he plans to teach him and do with him. I look forward to their friendship and bond! Ryan is pumped too because we just have 3 more boys to go to make the basketball team he's always joked about (we'll see how THAT goes)!

I'm a bit apprehensive about mother two boys but I know the Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle -- so I'm banking on that ;). It has been a lot of fun feeling the first flutters and wiggles and now his stronger kicks and punches, for me that just adds to the bond I'll have with my boy and excites me all the more. Movement and strong heartbeats are certainly assurance builders for me. Speaking of the heartbeat - we should have known all along it was a boy since his heartbeat has been between 140 & 145 every time we've heard it, which is exactly where Mr. Will's was. At our appointment today it was a steady 140 and so much fun to have our doctor catch it right on the first try (he hasn't always been the most cooperative for ultrasounds and the heartbeat doppler - makes this mama a crazy lady).

We are so excited to share this baby boy with and can't wait for his arrival!

Baby Prep...

2011-08-01T16:31:00.000-05:00

We are super excited about this baby -- the last 16 weeks have been chalk full of blessings! It has just been so neat to be part of this; that God chose us to be parents again and for Will to be a big brother. His timing is so perfect and Will is just so mature and understanding. I can remember being sick last year and Will getting very concerned and crying - I'm not sure if you've ever been curled over the toilet and trying to console a toddler but it's not easy and extremely difficult to explain what's happening. This year has been so different, in fact that same boy even responded to my plea for some saltines by saying "Mommy I'm sorry I can't reach them - just keep throwing up, you'll be fine!" If you've never praised the Lord while curled over the toilet - well it's an experience. But we could not have been more thankful for "morning sickness" and a boy who would've much rather stayed out of the bathroom and kept to himself.

On a brighter note - he can't stop talking about Coco; if you aren't familiar with Will and baby names then you'll need to know he names them pre-arrival. Cousin Mattea born a month ago has been lovingly nicknamed "Honey" by Will (since Aunt Jan was about 5/6 mo pregnant) and I hope he's always that sweet with her. He is very excited about becoming a big brother and talks about it daily. We've slowly been bringing baby stuff into the house (there are so many things that after your first you realize a) you never used or b)we could have used). We've also bought a new carseat since our last one had the 22lb weight limit and for our 9pounder that got him to 6mos (it's the pits to wake up a 6mo old to go into a store, or the house, etc...). So we've upgraded there! It's been fun to do a little shopping here and there at consignment sales and think about our life as 4 :)

Of course Will has to make sure that everything we plan to do with the baby is quality assured so he tests products for us.

Trying out the papasan chair - he later told Ryan all about it "Daddy you can turn the button and it plays music, or you can make it go "bzzzz" (vibrate) AND it can do BOTH!!"

Swaddled and ready to sleep ;)

Swaddling a 4yr old is far easier than an infant - they'll stay still and move their arms for ya

We've been having fun around here and can't wait to find out if Will is going to be a big brother to a little brother or little sister

Ringing in the NEW YEAR

2011-07-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

We'll be bringing in 2012 a bit different this year by adding another child! (party hats, noise makers, and late nights included) We are so thrilled for the blessing the Lord has given us and can not wait to meet this lil' one! Will is already talking about the "if's" and "what if's" (i.e - "what if it's a boy and he wants to play with all my toys - I'll have to tell him no!" or "I think I want it to be a girl so if she wants to play you'll have to buy her girl toys" -- you can see where his brain is). We are just so excited to be able to welcome this addition and continue to pray for the health and growth of this baby.

So what HAVE we been up to??

2011-07-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Our little family has been super busy since school ended in May. At the end of May, Ryan and I celebrated 7years of (mostly - hahaa) wedded bliss. In early June Will went to camp Grandma & Grandpa in IL and Ryan and I took off to Palm Beach FL for a little 7th anniversary present. It was a wonderful time for all 5 of us -- the Gma, Gpa, Will trifecta had a fabulous time and Ryan & I enjoyed our first time away since Will was born (if you are counting that's 4 years folks! :)).

After we returned we headed to IL and showered Aunt Jan & their baby girl with a family shower and then collected our son and headed back to Tennessee.
While home the mister turned 31 (wowsers) and we partied 4 year old style with some of our favorite buds (parents too!!).

The infamous Butternut Vanilla Pound Cake that Ryan requests for his birthday (this year I made two and I have to admit they were probably the best I've ever made)

Food Table @ Will's party

Complete with Larry Boy & The Bad Apple, Juice

Super Hero Tool Kits :) ; filled with more LARRY BOY things

Playing with a friend before all the guests arrived

The Parent Party Tent

The Larry Boy Birthday cake that my FAB FRIEND made for me...I mean Will :)

(just realized this picture looks mirrored, straa-ange!)

TRUTH: Kids sit quickly & quietly when cake is going to be served

A rare moment bouncing solo in the bounce house

As early July rolls around we always head back to IL to celebrate the 4th of July holiday with my family and squeeze in another round of birthday-ing for our boy. This year was no different and Will got some extra special gifts this year.

A new SPIDER-MAN fishing pole for the pond

Not his catch but of course daddy caught it for him :) Not pictured is the turtle I found for Will while walking to the pond - which Will appropriately named SHELLy. But after a pottying mishap Shelly was reunited with nature :)

After being given his shirt -- true feelings???

Not liking the idea?

So excited he is being "a little teapot"?

Or just plan proud?

(verdict is still out...we'll see :))

Jan & Dustin always in the race for best Aunt & Uncle had to outdo everyone with their gift to Will and delivered "Honey" on Will's 4th Birthday. So now Mattea Jane ("Honey") Fenton and Will share a birthday. (It was really just impecable planning for mom & dad's sake, we knew one day they wouldn't be totally "with it" so we thought that having their grandchildren with the same date of birth would just be incrediably easy on them :))

I may be totally partial but I've never seen a more beautiful newborn

Proud Aunt

The Birthday Buddies (and Uncle Dustin)

This one adores "Saute-a" (Mattea)

Will already taught her how to say cheese, they are already bonding so much :)

Okay -- now I think that has us pretty caught up to present day! :)

Strawberry Fields...

2011-05-13T20:19:00.000-05:00

We went strawberry pick'n with some of our best buds on Wednesday of this week, despite going early in the morning we didn't manage to beat the heat. So our lil' pickers had the sun to contend with while picking, needless to say a morning of picking strawberries we did no have -- but those 30mins were fun! :)

Looking for big red ones and loving that when he found a smooshy one he could pick it and throw it on the ground

You may not believe me but we actually WERE trying to get the kids to look at us -- ever try to get 6 kids to look in the same direction. Actually we did succeed, they just didn't choose us as their focal point :)

Showing off their berries and blocking the sun or keeping sweat from rolling in the eyes

We picked two gallons worth which was fine with me - since I made the mistake of purchasing some during my weekly grocery trip. So since we had a bunch I knew I needed to find a recipe to use them in. Sure there is strawberry shortcake or strawberry pie -- but I wasn't feeling either of those (plus I've had a really good strawberry pie from a friend and I just know that I can not match that - no matter how good I try to be). Instead I made Strawberry Muffins and oh my word, THEY ARE GOOD!! Below is the recipe I used, we didn't get rid of all our berries - but that's okay...I'm sure we can figure something to use them on.

Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients

- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 teaspoon almond extract (I added this)
- 1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut in chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F/200°C. Grease muffin tins or line with paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until light. Add milk, yogurt, vanilla, and melted butter. Gently whisk.

In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add to milk mixture and stir just until flour disappears. Gently stir in berries.

Spoon thick batter into muffin cups to the top. Bake about 25 minutes, until tester comes out clean. Invert and cool on rack.

Serves 12

* Mine baked in about 30-35 mins and the last 5mins I added a sprinkle of cinnamon/sugar to the tops of all of them, so yummy!

I have a blog?

2011-05-12T13:17:00.000-05:00

So over the past month -- it would be surprising if anyone even referenced this here lil' blog because somebody has majorly failed on keeping it up (ahem). I make no promises (so don't be looking for me to offer my pinky to swear by) but I going to make an attempt at getting back to documenting our life. I think the sign of a busy life is one in which you don't have time to sit and recount it, although when Ryan and I are sitting in our room at the nursing home we are sure going to wish that Will could tell us something about his childhood and our younger days. So with that in mind, I will make a vast effort to update this here lil' ol blog because, sure maybe Will could tell us some dashing (made up) stories and we'd feel like the world's greatest parents - but I'd really hate to put that responsibility on him, especially after he puts us up in a REALLY nice home :)

What makes you grow...

2011-04-20T09:49:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile

2011-04-18T20:32:00.001-05:00

Since I've spent any time here; a lot has happened over the last month and I have about 7 posts started to share about it all, but just lacking the gusto to tackle them.
We've spent some time back in Gville (which I'll post more on later) and Will told his Uncle Dustin and Aunt Jan that they should name baby girl Fenton "Honey". He's thought this for awhile and shared it with me several times but finally decided they needed to know this info. So that is what he refers to her as, even when I said her name (which is a secret, I just love that I know it ;)) the other day he responded "who?" I said "you know your cousin, the baby in Aunt Jan's belly" and he said "oh right, you meant to say Honey". So she may very well be Honey to Will and if she is, I think it's darling :)

He has a sister, who is actually the daughter of a friend of mine, but they often play pretend. He just doesn't quit playing after they've been together so he has told several random people that he has a "new see-ster". Which has been awesome to explain AND deal with in public settings. I'm sure we've gotten more than a dozen looks about our assumed "Sister Wife-ness" going on as we hang out a lot!

Speaking of pretend - this boy has a phenominal imagination. He can put together scenarios in his head and make them so realistic that I often want to be part of them. Someone tell me that is a form of child manipulation, right? ;) Anyways he is a hoot, whether repairing his spaceship, hunting dinosaurs, slaying dragons, being a robot or rein-acting scenes from "his shows" (cars, toy story, etc...) he pulls them off perfectly and with a lot of enthusiasm :)

Using his tool to fix his broken down rocket ship

Being a robot (apparently with no arms and the inability to see)

His absolute favorite (and most funny) joke right now is "Why do chickens sit on eggs?"...."Because they don't have chairs" ba-dump-ching!! He tells a lot of people and when he forgets to he gets very frustrated. His other one is "when do astronauts eat?"..."at launch-time" Feel free to use these, but please don't share them with him ;)

Almost 4 (which he'll inform you he is) is such a fun age for theories too. He has some great theories on where our food comes from and even better ones about milk. I won't share them now - I'm hoping to catch him on camera explaining it, because it's hilarious!! He knows we eat animals, which went over much better than I thought. However, if we ever had a pet cow, pig, chicken, etc...it might not be such a great topic of conversation for our lil' animal enthusiast. Almost 4 can also be a tricky time of word play, hearing big words and saying them is not always easy for a little mouth - and so we've had lots of "WHAT DID YOU say?!?!" moments. Which TOTALLY goes against the whole, "keep it cool and calm, don't over react" concept - but when you hear that part of a word has as many letters as he is almost in age, ya get a lil' crazy. So I'm working on that!

School is coming to and end with the brings so many mixed emotions. This year has been so great!! The things he has learned and picked up on is incredible. I mean I have a degree in elementary education, I've worked with lil ones his age - but my own kid still blows my mind. Maybe it's that he and I working together doesn't go over well so I don't always get an accurate perception, but I'm super impressed with his knowledge. He counts to 20, unless playing hide&go seek which is when he only counts to 7 - makes the whole game trickier, he is learning to spell things, he identifies all letters by either sound/name or both, he can write his name and starting to tackle other family names, and always wants to tell me the letters in places we go "Mommy, Mc Donalds starts with M and has a big D" or "Target has a big tapping T" and just the other day he said to me "why does daddy have an R at the beginning of his name that doesn't say "d-uh"" took me a minute to realize that he picked up on that fact that he read "Ryan" but knows his name as "Daddy".

Think that is a pretty quick update on us for now; Ryan and I are good - we know all our letters and most the time the sounds they make. Math and Reading are a whole other issue for us ;) I'm going to try and find the pictures I wanted to go with this post -- currently they are floating around in space someplace, hopefully they will land themselves in this post sooner than later.

Just like his daddy!

2011-04-08T09:27:00.000-05:00

Can't tell you how many times I've seen Ryan stand in front of the mirror and make face after face after face (I think at one point he tried to convince me it was part of perfecting his acting art - surely it was still new in our marriage if I believed that ;)). Not entirely sure about the fascination of it all - BUT when I opened the camera roll on my phone this morning, I realized that it may very well be innate!

Love this kid and all his zany faces! :)

On another note -- he may be a bit like his mama as he plays around the house making up songs to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" I'm not really sure how he knows that tune (especially why its so fresh in his mind in April) but he's having a good time :)

"The one with the Shark..."

2011-03-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

Most of our conversations with Mr. Will are full of imagination. He has grand ideas about so many aspects of life and it's always such a joy to hear him talk about nature, life, or even a day at school. So when he said to me on our drive today "Mom, I'll find the one with the Shark" I was not in the least bit thrown off. Sure I didn't know what "the one" was - but I knew in a matter of time my sweet lad would catch his dear ol' mom up to spend. Sure enough, I caught my boy gazing out the window up at the sky and new immediately what he was talking about. I quickly jumped into the conversation and said "you mean the cloud that looks like a shark?" He said "yup, can you find the one I see that looks like a shark?" I looked for just a second and sure enough there was a big puffy cloud with 2 peaks coming off the top and a pointy edge in front, "there it is buddy, I see it, the one with the fins sticking straight in the air" - "Good job mom! You got it, now let me find another one for you to find". He thoroughly enjoys playing games like this, given the right mood he'll play "I spy with my lillllleye" for 30mins. Running errands, waiting rooms, and restaurants can be shortened by these guessing games.

I think it is such a great parallel to many of the frustrations a child can have with communicating. Constantly trying to have the recipient see/hear things the way you do. Will communicates amazingly, but he still experiments with words and phrases that take me a couple times to understand. He repeats them, enunciates, and puts emphasis in different parts of the word - just to try and have me understand, often when I listen to the context of the word or try to think of what he is meaning in that phrase I'm able to understand it easier. Isn't that how we are with people, isn't that how we are with God? "If you just see it through my eyes God, that person is really difficult to get along with." "But God, families don't have kids that far apart." "I would volunteer for that ministry, but you know God I just don't have all that kind of time." We put things into perspective for ourselves, and stress different areas of importance, but we don't stop and listen/see the whole picture - the grand plan. Being a parent is such a wonderful role for numerous reasons - but one of the best reasons, is getting a glimpse at how we interact with our heavenly Father and how frustrating it could be on his end of the conversation. His grace and mercies are such sweet blessings and that sheer reminder should be enough, to stop and listen carefully. Not just to my sweet boy who has so much to share with me - but also to my Heavenly Father who has so much more to share with me.

When I started this post I didn't intend to be "preachy" or even have a connected thought [sometimes I really just luck out, huh? ;)] - but I'm glad I've had time to be reflective and put life into perspective again today.

So...do you see the one with the shark?

"Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!"

James 1:22 (The Message)

(not the actual sky we were looking at)

No dog!

2011-03-08T17:25:00.001-06:00

Most the time that is what I hear from Will. When the dogs are inside, Will constantly complains of them "tagonizing" him. Admittedly Max & Bevo are punks and they certainly outnumber the kid population here. We have a bit of a dog gang going on -- they roam the house in a pack (of 2) and their mission normally involves grabbing something Will wants (at least that what Will thinks, they are dogs...they are interested in the only active thing their size.) However in Will's defense - they most assuredly love all things that Will has (his toys make noise and move, his food is better than anything they have, and EVERYTHING is at their level with him). In the dogs defense (I know I know Dad, the dogs don't need to be defended) Will enjoys slyly bothering them and adding his own bit of mischief to the picture. Example, Will was having me together a Mr. Potato Head (apparently I have skills in that area that he constantly requires). While assembling said tater, I look down to tell Max to move (as her big ol' head filled my lap while I worked with the tiny pieces) and I see Will's hand. He has her ear and is twisting it, all the while looking right into my face as if nothing is even happening. No wonder Max laid her head in my lap - she was needing rescued from the clinches of a 3.5yr olds hand. :) Frequently we hear Will laughing from another room and he has gotten himself so tickled by feeding her her own tail so she chases it round in round in circles and runs into things. She IS the more tolerable of the two dogs - as Bevo has had his questions about Will since he arrived on the seen 3.5 years ago. Well that "love/hate relationship" is the story 65% of the time, but what would a house with dogs and a boy be without the occasional issue.

The other 35% of the time it's this;

Will loves to lay on the floor and have the dogs lay next to him - which is typically the result of some rough housing, chasing, and "tagonizing"!
It's true -- dogs really are man's best friend, even the smallest of men can't deny that :)

I just think the man would like the dogs to lay and cuddle more than they are willing to.

Lazy dogs really are the best ;)

Doodle-bug

2011-03-02T13:55:00.000-06:00

Will is in love with drawing, "writing", and coloring - but mostly he just loves when he gets to use mommy's markers (AKA: pens or sharpies). I have to say I have probably put them on a pedestal (which makes them more enticing) as most of my family knows I adore a good pen and keep it close to me if I should find one holds all the important pen qualities (good grip, nice tip, no smudging, doesn't bleed through, etc...). Good pens are hard to find, when you find them - you need to make sure the borrow-ee understands it's significance (since few people have my [in]sanity, I seldom loan the good ones out). However, the "Ryan & Danica Giffen - May 21, 2004" and "Greenville College" bic pens that we have in large supply are for anyone's disposal, even Will's. So today while I wrote a list for the store and did some MOPS work my assistant pulled up a chair and worked right next to me. Roughly 20 index cards later he had a list of his own, a story, some illustrations, and some "work" done too! He's so good at using his time wisely -- now if only he was as wise with his supply usage.

That front card says - "I will get a toy at Target", in Will-an-nese. (I'm not proficient in my written Will-an-ness, so I could only take his word for it - but since mama's word reigns, we managed to escape Target toy-less.)

Shortlived Sicky...

2011-03-01T17:45:00.000-06:00

When our boy got hit with the flu last week - there was no telling how long he'd be down for. Especially since he just seemed to feel SO awful! Fortunately we were able to make it to the doc within hours of noticing the crud getting the best of him and that evening start using some antibiotics. He was down about 36-48hours and then before we knew it he was back to his usual antics.

By Saturday morning we had this monkey peering out our front window while balancing of the very small ledge under the window.

I'd like to title this the "Tamiflu Turnaround"

So thankful for teachers, preschool directors, and doctors who saw our boy not acting like himself and cared enough to ask him what was going on. Poor fella asked this morning before we were off to school "Mom, am I still sick" when I said "no you are all better" he responded "good, I like going to play with my friends"

Material...

2011-02-25T20:00:00.000-06:00

Who would have thought that a sick kiddo would make for good blogging material. He has been an absolute riot today! Maybe it's the drugs, the sleepiness, or the fever affecting his brain - but the kid has been making me laugh.

This morning he wanted cereal and milk - to clarify I asked do you just want milk in your cereal or a separate cup of milk. He specified that in the bowl with the cereal & a cup was the way he wanted it. No sooner did I provide that request for him did I look over to see him pouring the cup of milk into the bowl. Clearly I did not give him enough milk. Once all the cereal was finished he then wanted all the milk back in the cup so he could drink it. What a routine - I can't keep up with that :)

Later in the morning he needed a snack - but he wasn't sure what he wanted. So I started suggesting things; cinnamon toast, granola bar, apples, etc... his response to each was "nope, too messy". Messy? really, since when has this become a MAJOR decision making concern? What did he finally decide would be satisfying to his snack needs - goldfish....ONE(,solitary, singular) GOLDFISH. That's the cracker version people. Never in my life has a 1/2 inch baked cheese cracker satisfied my snacking needs - clearly this flu has it's own whims!

It was time for lunch and after the one cracker I knew that he just may be the fullest 3 1/2 year old around - but I thought I'd venture on a limb and see if he would like to eat anything. When I asked him what he wanted he simply said "mommy how bout you think about what you want me to eat and I'll eat that". Whaaaa??? Maybe I'm new on the scene (although I was pretty sure I wasn't) but never have I heard "I'll eat what you give me from my son" - and certainly the actions have never mimicked that statement :) Being a smart gal I threw out some test meals and all were answered with "nah, that's too hot" so when I'd go the opposite direction he would say "too cold". Now I know with a fever and not feeling good sometimes there are temperature preferences but it was just funny to hear him. Finally I offered to make him a scrambled egg (after he insisted that all he wanted was an apple) and he agreed than an apple & egg would be just right. So glad to hear Goldilocks, so glad to hear!

Eating his lunch that was just right and catching up on some Word World

This afternoon he also agreed to a trip to the store in his jammies - this momma hasn't been feeling so great and laziness set in. In my defense the were clean (not the ones he wore to bed the night before) and I ventured out in sweats too ... I'm all about themed grocery trips. Which is good since we picked up a kiddie cart filled with drinks - fevers & sickness cause for dehydration, gotta keep your liquids stocked! :)

Will's pillow pet got a new name tonight (this is name number 12 since he came home yesterday afternoon). "His name is Mr. Hogry, we call him that because he's hungry" - Will, as he looks at his pet laying flat out. I suppose he does look a bit hungry. ;)

Tonight before heading up to bed he turns around and gives a big wave and says "Adios Amigos" - goodbye friends to you too and buenos noches little buddy. Thank you Dora & Diego for the spanglish that has entered our home :)

I may not have won any parenting awards today - but my son now knows how to navigate the netflix instant que & select instant movies on the iPad. I'd say today wasn't a total parenting fail (well at least not in self sufficiency - oh and the times I made him count his jelly beans before getting to eat them after taking his medicine ;))

Sick days aren't always fun - but boy oh, this day was one for the books!

Never say Never...

2011-02-24T15:48:00.000-06:00

No I'm not a Beiber fan - but I am now a fan of a fade equally as nutty! :) Ya see my boy had to come home sick from school today - I was given the dreaded call around 10:30 this morning. He had only been at school for an hour and half and his temp soared to 101.5. No obvious signs preceded this but after chatting with the director she made it clear that getting him check out by a doc would be wise. I immediately called his pediatrcian and we were in within an hour. After seeing the doctor she knew he was super sick, in fact before she even did his initial exam she ordered a flu test (he looked that bad - oh and his fever was 103 by then). After a few minutes of waiting, cuddling and near napping she was back in to give us the news - the boy has the flu. We headed to pick up our drugs and to make our wait for our prescription more bearable and the cart more comfortable we picked up this sweet little buddy! (gotta love the "as seen on tv section to help pass the time) Hoping the pillow pet (and the meds purchased) bring quick healing for our boy! Otherwise we may have to pick this fella up too - all I'm saying if Ryan & I get taken down we may have a whole farm of these critters ;)

Great Resource

2011-02-23T17:20:00.000-06:00

**Interrupting our regularly scheduled family sharing to let ya in on a resource I love!**

Sometime long ago when I was signing up for coupons online I registered to receive some great emails. I didn't know it then, but I have LOVED getting these emails each Sunday. Sunday's I can count on an email from "Dinners Made Easy" - some weeks a couple of the meals really sound great and other times, I pass. It's just such a convenience to get them - especially since sometime on Sunday or by Monday morning I do my meal planning for the week (plus they always have coupons attached and some fun simple dessert).

This week the had a section on "Meals for 2" - I realize that we are actually 3, but I think it's safe to say when you have a young kiddo (and a picky one at that) there is no reason for a HUGE meal. Plus we just can't tackle the leftovers. I know that many of our readers (aka family) are pairs or have young kiddos (which just aren't ready for "Meals for 4 (or 6)").

So tonight I am trying one of the "Meals for 2" and I'm really looking forward to it. We are having chicken pot pie (which is new to my repertoire) - but I thought it was a good idea to try, veggies, meat, cheese, and bread in one - how can a 3 1/2 year old resist?? (I'm sure after dinner I'll have a whole list of ways in which one can). I made some modifications to ours that I'll share here - but you can refer to the link to see the real deal version.

I slow cooked my frozen chicken breasts in the cream of chicken for a couple hours on high to cook them, then I shredded the chicken. I also used about 3/4C of chicken instead of the recommended 1/2C. I added less cream of chicken to the mixture since I had already cooked the chicken in it and the chicken still had a pretty thick coating (soup) around it. I also added a fair amount of shredded cheese to the mix prior to adding the topping. I baked ours in a 1 1/2qt baking dish, for 15mins and since this is a meal that I won't be around for, I'll just pop it in the oven to warm it up for the boys - before I have to leave.

Hope y'all enjoy this resource, I just thought I'd share something that may just benefit so many of those in our stage of life.

Bik'n Boy...

2011-02-22T16:40:00.000-06:00

This weather is just gorgeous - late February is spoiling us with sunny days, temperatures in the 60's, and hints of spring all around. We are taking our nightly (or afternoon) walks again - such a difference having a boy able to ride & pedal his bike this year. Despite our hilly 'hood - Will is building up some monster muscles and plowing up the hills :) He is figuring out that standing up helps power through the steep parts and that pushing the pedals bake will slow or stop him on the hills back down to our house. Such a joy watching our boy figure things out, grow, and change into a big boy!

"May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!."

Proverbs 23:25

"Each day is Valentine's day..."

2011-02-15T17:54:00.000-06:00

It's little holiday's like Valentine's day that we like to stretch out - I did that when I was teaching and now I notice I'm doing it with my own family.

We start talking about it at the beginning of the month so he is aware of what is coming up, others mention it, they cover it in school, church, and by the time it's here he is all about it :) About a week ago we started making valentine's for each other. He made one for Ryan & I and also learned to cut out hearts. In Sunday school they have been taking about loving one another and been making Valentine's and "love related" crafts - so he is heart proficient now. Even school & MOPS have had their fair share of crafts. It's fun seeing him get excited about the holiday and all the new Valentine's he has made and who they are for.

Some of the Valentine's (and crafts) he made for us

On Valentine's day (or at least the day on either side) we always try to have a special sweetheart dinner. It's just for our family, we sit in the dining room, use REAL dishes (all of us, no plastic ware at our table), and have a fun dinner. For now we are simple fun dinners -- when Will gets older our meals may be more elaborate but for now a little splash of CHANGE goes a LONG way. Pizza is always a fun meal and there are so many things your can do with that idea. Popular pizza places have the heart shaped pizza and I have made personal heart pizza's & calzones in the past but I wanted to do something different. I bought store made crust and fixed the pizzas up myself - heart pepperoni's and a heart of pepperoni's were the perfect toppings.

For dessert, Will and I made red velvet surprise cupcakes. It was fun to see Will watching Ryan eat his cupcake and wait till he reached the surprise.

A York Peppermint Patty is a tasty surprise in this yummy cupcake!

Will had his school party today, at first he didn't want to give his friends valentine's (I'm not entirely sure why, other than he is 3 1/2 and sometimes kids just think they don't want to do something). Once the details we're explained to him and he understood that EVERYONE was bringing Valentine's he was all for it. I had several ideas for Valentines - at first I was going the standard store bought fold, sign and stick together route - but when I looked at the price and how many you get I realized that paying $3-$4 for 32 valentine's wasn't really in my best interest since a) He has a small class and b) he doesn't (really) know 32 three & four year olds [practicality is key here]. So later in the week I was skimming some of my favorite blogs and stumbled on this one but also saw several others I liked and came up with a few in my good ol' noggin too. I knew we could do the picture one (even if we waited till say the night before the party) and actually thought "hey I have suckers in the pantry I'll just use those" - but theme got the best of me and I splurged on a bag of $1 suckers (I'm wild, I know). Fortunately my hubby is a fan of helping out and printed them for me since our home printer decided to have some technical issues right when we needed it's service. We assembled them the night before and I don't think they couldn't been easier -- paper cutter, marker, and a pen to poke holes in the paper, slide the sucker through and VOILA!

We love how they turned out!

"Love one another as I have loved you." John 15:12

Crew Cut

2011-02-09T17:16:00.000-06:00

While Will's hair grew we often heard "looks like he has a crew cut" or "how cute you gave your boy a crew cut". Each time I wanted to respond "Nope never cut it" (since he didn't have his first trim/cut till 2 1/2) - but was never given the chance to respond.

You can see his God given style was a bit on the military side

But after snapping this shot the other day - I can safely say it looks like we've made our boy a

military man

Setting Goals...

2011-02-03T19:28:00.000-06:00

I do this a lot and most the time I achieve them...but every once in awhile it doesn't work out so well. This time I'm trying really hard - over on my craft blog I made a goal to do a project each week! So far so good -- I've managed to share 3 crafts/projects that I've done. This is so helpful because I love to flex my creative muscles and now with a goal I almost feel like I have to (in the most none "being told to" kind of way). Anyways if you are interested in seeing what I'm doing (while I'm suppose to be caring for your grandson or nephew - any other relation to my son out there?) hop on over!

Handsome lad...

2011-02-02T17:37:00.000-06:00

It was time, though I hated to admit it, to get our boy a real (professional) hair cut. Ryan and I both agreed that getting everything even would probably be the best, especially since we don't intend to continue "salon styles". Working with a professional cut will give me a better guide for layers and stuff (total beauty school lingo).

We went all out and hit up a total kiddie cut shop and Will was really into it (go big or go home, right?). Snip-It's is a great place for children who may be apprehensive about getting their hair cut as they cater to a lot of tots. They also are very older kid friendly and are set up to host fun girlie "beauty shop" parties too! Neither of which appeal to Will since I'm not really sure you can be apprehensive about a hair cut when all you know is a stool in your parent's bathroom and your momma cutting your hair with some hair scissors that came in a "cut your hubby's hair value pack" from 7years ago. Talk about taking the shock value out of getting your hair cut :).

He had a great time -- watched a weird video about getting your hair cut, played with a toy lizard and turtle, and then got to turn in his "hair cut card" for a prize. Really, how is that not fun? (Now that I have all the tricks figured out beauty shop at home is ON!! :)) Needless to say we left while he asked "can I come back to the goblin store again?" (really have no idea why he thought it was goblin store or where he came up with the word goblin...his imagination is beyond me at times).

Getting his hair sprayed to "release" the curl

(apparently she is new to curly hair...water doesn't release curl it only spring loads it :))

Did I fail to mention he also got a sucker? I could sit for a while if I had everything I wanted too :)

Looking down was the hardest for him -- the TV should've been on the floor to keep his attention downward.

Finished product!

He looks so big now - we love it but she did take a bit more off then I wanted. But since his hair grows so fast I figured it'll only take a couple more weeks till he has those cute curly locks peeking from underneath is hat :)

Biker...

2011-01-27T17:01:00.000-06:00

Our boy got a bike for Christmas this year - Santa was super cool and picked out a Toy Story bike just perfect for Will. He also got a really neat helmet to keep his noggin safe! He has been riding his bike around the kitchen (and more recently the entire house, carpeted parts included) so today when the high was 50 I decided that we needed to get out and enjoy the sun and warmer weather. We headed to a local bike path and he whirred around like he has been riding forever! I was even able to run along side of him while he sped on the straightaways (I'm not sure what that says about my running speed these days or maybe it says that Will is SUPER fast! - yea, that's exactly what it is)

Ready to RIDE!!

We did 2 laps (one really great wipe out) which is just about 2 miles. I was so impressed with my little man and he couldn't rid his face of a big ol' smile (except for the times he was being goofy serious and was rev'n up his "engine").

Ready to go home - he was AWESOME

(the best out there, but maybe the only one too)

As mentioned Will has been riding his bike in the kitchen during all the snowy days and I have some video of it - once I figure out how to load it I will share it. I'm hoping that you won't have to turn your head the whole time while watching - but no promises :)

Blogging Buddy...

2011-01-25T16:38:00.000-06:00

This is the face I see as I sit at the computer. Anytime I'm at the computer she comes and sits/lays next to me. Most of the time it's a full out sprawl - but sometimes she pops up and puts her paw on my leg and just sits.

From here she can keep an eye on the whole family. Whether Will is in the family room or upstairs playing she can keep everything within hearing range. She has become such a fun little (not that I'm speaking in physical terms) member of our family and very protective. Will still loves her, even though she plays a bit rougher than Bevo. (As if Will knows nothing about being rough, that boy is a brute with the dogs)

Will plays right back and is getting really good at commands with her (he can typically get her to sit and shake hands). He also feeds the dogs each day and enjoys getting to help get them water too! Will is growing up to be a real animal lover, and while we are really only dog people he has told us countless times that when he gets bigger that he will have a cat. When we inform that he'll have to do that once he moves out of our house, he gets upset. So we'll see how long this cat thing sticks; especially since a couple weeks ago as we were discussing this he decided he would live with us forever (foregoing the cat...shwew!)

(s)NO(w)? Not again!!

2011-01-21T18:18:00.000-06:00

This may come as shocker since last week I just raved about how great snow days are...oops! Okay, so they were great when I was a kid and school was canceled, I didn't want to go anyway - mission accomplished :) But then I remembered how awful snow is here...it comes in a couple forms; powder/slush or slush/ice. It never comes and stays pretty (note; not referring to the north or northeast when I say pretty -- because I think that snow is dreadful!) But more like the way it was when I was growing up, pretty :). It came, it canceled school, it melted or was cleared from the roads, and then it just hung out nicely in the yard until it was gone! Here is comes (all 1-3inches) shuts the town down and then you're left to get antsy and forced to play more movies than you would normally (publicly announce) allow your child to watch :)

Last week we got out and played in the snow - today we "brought" the snow in, well at least the idea of it. Since we are both of the tail end of gunk I thought it best to keep our recovery bodies indoors. So while Will enjoyed some hot cocoa I started the ol' wheels a turning. I brainstormed about activites I use to do with my students, I googled some ideas, and then I stood in front of my craft shelf and collected all the goods to pull the day off!

We started the morning off with some coffee filter snowflakes (good use of some old filters that don't fit our coffee maker & excellent time of practicing scissors - I feel like I'm writing lesson plans again, yuck!)

After a couple dozen snowflakes (some practices and others masterpieces) we digressed...attention span drifting :)

Old man Will-ter

I see you!

We then used the filters for another fun craft!

Cut 2 filters in graduating sizes (the bottom one is just a regular filter) Then shop the house for snowman pieces; we found buttons, toothpicks, jelly beans, cotton balls, craisins, and ribbon to make ours

When then strung our snowflakes and hung our snowmen to make a pretty little winter scene (this picture cracks me up; we had a family friend growing up that asked my mom one time if she ever hung things from the ceilings or made bulletin boards in her house to decorate with b/c she use to be a teacher. She laughed, because that's just a silly idea...well - call me silly! :))

After all that we were in serious need of lunch and then a nap. But once you've had a nap, and you are 3.5, you are certain to wake up SO HUNGRY! So we had to cure that with a special snow day treat, enter.....CINNAMON SUGAR SNOWFLAKES!

This fun little snack starts with the basic flour tortilla and some kitchen scissors. (If the tortilla isn't as soft as you'd like for it to be to fold without breaking, microwave it for a few seconds) Then fold it up like a piece of paper to make a snowflake.

Make some fun designs & preheat the oven to 350.

Brush melted butter over the tortillas and sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar, then if your heart desires (or your sous chef begs) add some sprinkles....then later locate the blue ones that you had been trying to find (that would make them look more wintery) and sprinkle those on too!

After about 10mins in a 350 oven pull them out and enjoy! So very tasty :)

After that - you are going to want to pass out from a sugar overload and then wake up and immediately work out :) That's not exactly what we did -- but there may have been some bike riding laps in the kitchen...but not by me :)

Today was a great snow day and we never once desired to go out in the cold!

Wahoooo, mission accomplished!

One of my favorite ladies...

2011-01-19T17:28:00.000-06:00

Is my dear Grandmother -- well honestly, she is a favorite to all of us. She won Ryan over with "real" home cooked meals during our first couple years of marriage [she made the meals for him that I didn't know how to or didn't want to...yup, I'm quality! ;)]. Will simply adores Great Grandma and doesn't get the least bit spoiled by him [he is her only great right now and she is his only Great Grandmother...they have the "only's" bond :)]. Well and then there is Grandma & I...we've had a special relationship, I think, since she found out I was a girl - I'm her only grand-daughter. Growing up I have fond memories of painting nails together, playing beautician (curlers & all), playing barbies, playing restaurant, singing songs, playing lots of games, and so much more. I always looked forward to she & grandpa's visits and especially when they got to watch my brother and I when my parents had to go out of town.

Earlier this month my Grandma turned 83, WOW! That just amazes me because to me - that age is just SO much older than she is in spirit. Somehow I think this birthday was so much different for her - you see because even before she got to blow out 83 candles she was diagnosed with cancer. Let me just be clear on one thing -- if there is anything that my family dislikes with a passion it's the big ol "c-word". In some families cancer pops up in 1 family member - but in ours we've seen a lot of aunts, uncles, grandparents, children, grandchildren, cousins, brothers & sisters fight a good fight against it. For anyone it is a scary and uncertain disease, but when someone who has been as strong and healthy as my grandmother - it just throws you for a loop. We are hopeful for future visits with doctors and eventually surgeries and pray for their success. There's no needing a "why did this happen?" or a "how come?" - we just know now is the time to be praying for she & grandpa; physically, emotionally, and mentally. Her family is supporting her and I know that is the best for her morale. She loves her family and has been a strong support for so many of them as they've faced physical and emotional trials. Grandma is definitely a strong woman who enjoys life and we look forward to many more years of that!

Christmas - showing off her new apron from Ryan

(so fitting since he always loves anything she makes)

Opening a present from Jan & Dustin

Excited to discover they are going to be Great-Grandparents...AGAIN!!

Pray with me for this precious people...they are just lovely and I know they are hurting right now.
Love you G'ma & G'pa L

Snow Ice Cream...

2011-01-11T14:09:00.000-06:00

Last night we got the word that school was off for today - so I thought it would be fun to make a special treat last night. Earlier in the day I collected some snow (clean, fresh off the top, where NO prints were snow) and wasn't certain what we were going to do with it. I put the lid on the container and left it outside. After our snowman building, warming up and nap time I thought Will may want to play outside more - but I wasn't sure I was going to be up for that. So I figured we could bring that snow in and play with it at the kitchen table or in pans on the floor, maybe even make an indoor snowman. However, by the time he got up from his nap it was too dark so playing outside wasn't a concern of his. After dinner I remembered the snow and thought a perfect treat (too a totally flopped meal) would be some ice cream. We didn't have any but I knew my snow that I had been preserving outside would be perfect. I quickly searched the internet for a recipe and found one to which I had all the ingredients. So I thought I'd share it here! Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 gallon snow
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups milk

Directions

When it starts to snow, place a large, clean bowl outside to collect the flakes. When full, stir in sugar and vanilla to taste, then stir in just enough milk for the desired consistency. Serve at once.

As you can see from the picture ours turned out more like Italian ice (one of our favorite summer treats). We added a bit of mint flavoring to ours and tonight I plan on tossing in some chocolate chips! We saved ours and popped it in the freezer. If you'd like to try this treat out too, but maybe want a thicker consistency this recipe seems like it would make it smooth and more ice cream like.

The congested head and nose monster is visiting today (it began for me a couple days ago, but Will really started sounding bad yesterday) - so this is pretty much what our day looks like.

Hoping we'll be feeling better tomorrow and that the snow is cleared enough to really enjoy being out and about.

Snowday!

2011-01-10T14:15:00.000-06:00

If we were school going folk having today off would cause great celebration -- but for us it's just another Monday (snowy as it may be). One day it'll be fun to sneak into Will's room and turn off the alarm or not wake him up till WAY passed normal wake up time; after receiving the word that school was canceled. I have such fond memories of snow days growing up. Days full or movies, games, playing in the snow, sledding, etc... Oh sure there were probably the momentary boredom cries - but for the most part it's all good memories I have. I remember staying up late waiting to see our district scroll across the bottom of the screen or waking up early to the phone call letting parents know that they were being blessed with the company of their kiddos for the day :)

(guess they won't be working on the house across from us today...oh sweet silence)

Max LOVES the snow -- she tosses it up and tries to catch the flakes as they flurry around her. She & Bevo couldn't be more opposite in the snow (he's hanging out by the door waiting to get in)

We enjoyed the warmth of the indoors for a good portion of the morning until I decided that I was ready to bundle us both us (packing on the layers to one body is one thing - but doing that for two...sheesh! By the time I had my clothes on and then put his on I was ready to take a break ;))

We opened the door into this winter wonderland (felt like we were stepping out of the wardrobe, well just for a minute at least)

We got a great snowman kit for Christmas (included in a cute plastic snowman; hat, scarf, pipe, carrot nose, buttons for eyes & mouth). Oh sure, there were great visions of using it - but once faced with the snow today well I was feeling a bit unmotivated! A three & a half year old has amazing motivating ways :) So out we went to play in the snow and build a snowman.

Patting on more snow

All done -- He is pretty cute and as you can see not even as tall as Will. This momma was doing A LOT work packing while Will was applying some snowman building skills he learned from Special Agent Oso (just another reason that show doesn't thrill me -- rolling the snow is not a truly affective way to make a snowman. Not all snow is going to pack like that. - oh well!) He did build the head all by himself, though.

So PROUD of his snowman

If there is one thing I'm not a huge fan of - that is wet clothing, especially when clumps of snow are sticking to your pants, shoelaces, etc... My mom always had a place for us to shed our layers when we walked in the door and I realize now that wasn't just for comfort but also for cleanliness in the house. I move our laundry drying rack to the front entry so we can shed the wet layers first and leave on our warm layers. Then move it under the vent so they dry warm up for our next round in the snow :)

A stack of winter wear says a successfully fun time in the snow to me! Off to enjoy more snow day treats - nap time, hot cocoa, movies and games are sure to fill the afternoon!

Top 10....

2011-01-06T20:01:00.000-06:00

I don't have a bunch of time to write a post but I want to touch on TOP 10 topics I may write about in the near future (very relative term ;))

1. Will songs

2. 3 yr old intelligence

3. Target

4. My Grandmother

5. Just how cool my brother is

6. Lunch

7. Will's love for his Daddy

8. Christmas 2010 (might be a good idea, huh?)

9. Sweet Friends

10. Prayers answered

Some of these topics may be boring to the reader of "The Giffen Family" but I'm hoping that one day when "the cast" of this blog look back; that this blog will hold dear memories, sweet stories, and random ramblings that will help our family understand where we've been, where we are, and where we're going. I just hope no one looks to this blog for cues on "how to write correctly" - because if there is one thing that I notice about this blog is how many run-on sentences & fragments. There are (haha)! How I seldom use the correct words and if I do, well I've misspelled them, and I write like I talk - just like we are sitting hear having a conversation. As a topic or thought comes to mind, out it goes to the keyboard and onto the internet (which is just plain scary now that I gave it a moments thought).

Anyways - I promise to cover at least some of the 10, I'm hoping that by putting them out there in list form that maybe, just maybe I can hold to it.

Here's hoping I do just that!

Low-key...

2011-01-03T16:00:00.001-06:00

That would describe our last 4 days (Thurs- Sun) -- we just hung out, folded the occasional pile of laundry, ate a few meals a day, probably watched more TV than a family of 3 ought to, took long naps, and made sure that our wardrobe was at it's maximum comfort. Oh sure there were the spontaneous outbursts of chase through the kitchen, a dog (or two) might have ran across the couch disrupting our laziness, well and our weekend would not be complete without some small fits of discontent (what would 3 1/2 be without it :))
But for the most part we did a whole lot of noth'n. While others were undecking the halls we were snuggled on the couch, with football on, and eating our lunch (lunch uniquely different lunches might I add). I couldn't have enjoyed having the three of us home more! Will absolutely enjoys time with all three of us, but he would pass that up for time just with Daddy and they fit plenty of that in too! (I'm not math genius but even I can deduce that some gets to hang out solo, oh glorious non testosterone time alone...pure bliss I tell ya!) But by lunch time on Thursday - I wondered what my boys were doing and couldn't help but imagine the fun they were having without me and well that's just not allowed ;) So I called the solo gig quits!
I tried looking back through my pictures to see if we captured any of our family time - but all I could find was a picture of my finger nails, some blurry shots of Miss Max, a picture of our black eyed pea soup (go on; laugh, poke fun, scoff - it's fine...we've been converted to some southern ways), and a very closeup picture of the newest photographer in our house (he could benefit from turning the camera out, and moving his finger from the lens, oh details!) But I did find this and thought it was the perfect shot.

Snuggly house shoes that didn't leave my feet, a bare little foot that belongs to my favorite boy (who insists his feet are never cold and that socks, shoes, and slippers are non-necessities - despite how chilly his lil' toes are when we fill them) while he plays with toys on the ottoman and floor, and one of the dog's blankets (empty, since it was so nice this weekend that they spend some much needed time outside), behind me is the couch where Ryan spent a lot of time (well when he wasn't chasing Will or helping with one of our many thrown together meals :))
That my friends is what a simply loverly weekend looks like to me - oh it was just so sweet...and memorable!

This is Ryan now, I have a few pictures that I would like to add, post posting... is that ok to do?

Proof of more PJ wearing... Thanks GiGi for the updated Buzz PJ, our old ones had supposedly "shrunk" drastically.

A lot of coloring and and behind that picture is a little boy with more PJ's on...

This was upstairs in the bonus room looking at the Star Walk app on the iPad... incredible for curious little ones app. Will now knows all about Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Leo, and of course the "Mommy Star" - Andromeda.... look it up.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2010-12-27T10:50:00.000-06:00

Shameless Plug...

2010-12-18T19:05:00.000-06:00

It's been 9+ years since we met or at least think we might have met. We didn't know each other before that hot day in August and probably never gave any thought about the other afterward. That was until sometime in the winter months of 2007 when I stumbled upon her blog. I hid in the shadows of blogland for a long while until eventually I made it known that I was one of her readers. Her oldest boy and our Will are about the same age and it was so nice to know that what my baby boy was doing was on par, well at least according to a gal I didn't much know who lived in another state. It's been about 3 years since I first started clicking over to see what she and the boys were doing and since then I've been clicking on over to her other site . She is a fab card designer and has made Will's birthday invites every year, our Christmas card for the last 3 years, a bridal shower invite for a friend, Ryan's 30th surprise party invites, and even was in the know enough to be in the works of making our new addition announcement.
I love hopping over to her shop and seeing her new stuff and dreaming up opportunities to use it. I think if you wondered over there you'd find the perfect card for an upcoming occasion in your life too. Oh and it's so easy to order her cards and have them printed at your local Target or Wal-mart - which I'm ALL about convenience :)
So how do I know this lady -- well technically we are blog-friends, but through my bro & sister in law being friends with her & her husband it makes our friendship a WHOLE lot less awkward and creepy! :) You see, she & I probably met at their wedding and she knew of my husband before I even knew he existed. That's what a small college will do to ya...it's crazy wonderful like that.
So why am I even bothering with a post dedicated to her? Because we got our cards again today and like always she did a fantastic job! I'm always so impressed with her work, the time she devotes to each customer and still manages to have a full time job and mothers two adorable boys and is a wife. Folks - if a women can do all that when I'm ordering my Christmas cards on December 18, she ranks HIGH in my books!

Take a peek at her stuff -- you WILL NOT be disappointed!

A peek at our card...coming later! :)

Nativity

2010-12-03T08:26:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago I posted about wanting to get a Nativity scene for Will to be able to play with. Some of you were great and weighed in and I did end up getting him one (only later to find it somewhere else for $10 less, break my deal hunting heart!) In that post I joked about a Toy Story nativity scene and how awful that would be. So you can imagine my delight when I saw this posted by a friend on facebook.

It's the top 20 worst nativity scenes only to be topped by this one! Oh my...I think it's safe to say that I ventured far from that with the set I decided on for Will (people are people and the animals well are just the livestock represented, nothing fowl - HA!)

I guess my Toy Story idea wasn't all that crazy!

"It's that time of year..."

2010-12-02T11:12:00.000-06:00

"...every song your hear, seems to say "Merry Christmas, May your new years dreams come true!"

(Yup this song...SCREAMS that, right?)

Caroling...

2010-12-01T10:25:00.001-06:00

Will is in a new phase of making up songs! I remember this stage vividly - partially in thanks to it being video-taped (I learned early that acoustics are ALWAYS better in the shower) It is so fun to hear his rendition of songs OR a Will original. Last night after Ryan had started a fire & we ate dinner; Ryan sarcastically said "Okay now it's time to sit around the fire and sing songs", we were surprised when an excited three year old voice piped up and said "Yeah!!! Let's sit around the fire and sing!" This is the outcome! (it's 5+ minutes long, you might wanted to fix yourself a snack and find something to wash it down - you are going to be here for a while)

My apologies for the crazing recording -- he can't know I'm recording or he clams up. However, after watching the video again, I'm pretty sure it would've taken him A LOT to shut down :)

Thanksgiving - Abridged :)

2010-11-29T09:15:00.000-06:00

I know that if I don't blog about it now, well I probably won't. I hate to break it to you but I looked at our December schedule and folks it feels like it's nearly over! I know, I know it hasn't even started yet - but it's just going to be one of those months -- we have A LOT going on over the next couple weeks before Christmas arrives.

So here is what our Thanksgiving vacation looked like:

We broke up our LONG trip to Texas by stopping in Arkansas on Monday night, so we wouldn't be too tired arriving in Dallas. Quote of the evening: (after walking into our large room, not a suite or anything -JUST HUGE, Will said) "OH MY GOODNESS!!! It's just like a campout!" Maybe for some son, but you have an aunt & uncle that would be extremely disappointed to know their nephew associates "camping out" with a hotel. (sorry J&D!)

Rough'n It ;)

We got this super awesome air mattress/sleeping bag for him to camp out in our room at the Giffen's - HE LOVED it! Who would've known the pride a little boy could in his bed.

He played with these two...A LOT!! Currently a show has their attention - but I can't even tell you the number of laps around the house these 3 made, they enjoyed times of "hide & seek", many meals together at the kiddie table, and lots of fun!!

We took a train & bus to downtown Dallas to see the miniature trains - it was a fun adventure for him

And for some reason he decided to keep getting bigger and more handsome and make his mommy & daddy go a bit crazy over how fast he is growing up! WE LOVE THIS HANDSOME KIDDO!!

Hope you and your families had a great Thanksgiving and are moving into this miraculous season with gratitude in your hearts and hold the same wonder that we see children have about Christmas!

Temps, Lyrics, and a Random writer

2010-11-17T10:17:00.001-06:00

It just decided to get chilly this week here in the mid. TN area. It's been beautiful and warm over the last several weeks and made me totally forget how quickly we are approaching the holidays (seriously, Thanksgiving in a week? How did that even happen?? Oh MY, I just remembered that means some birthdays next week too! See that's the kind of denial I'm in - the warm, gorgeous, sunny weather has blinded me and kept me from realizing that despite the weather Thanksgiving is ALWAYS 3 weeks after Halloween. Sheesh, thanks for walking through that with me (all 3 of you who read this :) Which means it's safe to say my dad won't know that I actually forgot his birthday is next week).
Okay back on track now -- Will has a new affinity for specifying the temperature of his food and I thought that I would share just how he does this. The other day we had this conversation:
D: "Buddy wouldn't it be fun to have some hot chocolate on this COLD day?"
W: "No!"
D: "But it's cold, so the hot chocolate will warm us up"
W: "Then I'll take warm chocolate"
Several other conversations have ended like this and he wants his food warm and if he sees it smoke (steam) he'll often say he'll wait till it warms up or that he doesn't want his food hot. I get it - burn your mouth once and deal with that pain on the tongue till it heals and of course, running in the opposite direction is the wisest ;) It just cracks me up to see his understanding of the difference between cold, warm, and hot; and then of course to hear his opinion of what certain things should be either one of those.
So this morning after Ryan went to work he came down from playing and requested warm chocolate, it went something like this "Mommy, I think it's cold enough for some warm chocolate" I looked at him funny (forgetting the convo we had a couple days earlier and thinking, why on earth would we just warm up chocolate?). I said "okay, why?" his simple answer "because I'd like to drink some that isn't HOT!" Then I got it...ding, ding, ding! He wanted HOT CHOCOLATE - but didn't want it to be hot! Oh how I wish to go back in time and tell those little cappuccino/hot chocolate vending machines that I only wanted it warm so I wouldn't have scalded my mouth so many times - seriously, he is brilliant ;) He was enjoying his WARM CHOCOLATE so much this morning that of course I needed a picture - which lead to me following him around the house. Parents really are like the paparazzi :)

As I type this (Giffen brothers your pride will overflow, trust me) Will is singing "AWAAAAAAKE! My soul, awaaaaaaaaaake! my soul. noose around your neck noose around your neck." He doesn't quite have all the lyrics in the right spot - but a Mumford & Sons fan, he most certainly is :) He often requests and Sons when we are in the car as our music selection and can "harhar....haaarhar" with the best of them :)
I'll leave you with Will's favorite video

Movie critics :)

2010-11-12T11:31:00.000-06:00

I never would've thought we would be taking out boy to the movies - but after we broke him in with TS3 back in June. It seems like every time something animated hits the big screen the mister is looking to see if it's suitable for our boy. Fortunately we have declined many an opportunity to hit the cinema and broke down and went for the second time this weekend.

After having my wisdom teeth taken out last Thursday, I slept for...I dunno maybe 5hrs. Or something close to that and immediately went BACK to bed. Oh the ambition I had for that day (for women who aren't yet mothers and still have your wisdom teeth...keep them, you'll love that time of "recovery"), but the next day I was feeling better good...well more like prrreeeeettttyyyy gooooood! So I woke up that morning and went to MOPS and then came home and slept for HOURS, by the time the evening rolled around Ryan and Will were getting stir crazy! So Ryan said they were going to go to see a movie. I was a bit surprised but thought oh well - it'll be fun. Then he asked if I thought I might want to go and I was like sure I mean I haven't done anything and watching a movie takes, let's see - 0 energy so I was ALL about!

We went and saw MegaMind -- it was okay. Not necessarily a movie that has to be seen in the theater or well...seen at all! It wasn't anything spectacular and fortunately Will wasn't WOWED by it either. The only thing he really enjoyed was that we caught it in 3D -- because the next regular showtime was passed his bedtime.

So he got to watch with THESE on!

I think this age is SO great because when they are "IN TO" something they are in it 100%! Right now that is Toy Story for him - so really everything else is just everything else. He could take it or leave it - and that makes me happy. For that reason 3 is simple, it's focused in one area and not all across the board of "I want, I want, I want!" Sure I've heard that from him, but it dies down when I say "if you want that then we have to get rid of your Toy Story characters" and that pretty much quiets him.

So we saw a movie this weekend -- I slept a lot and the boys had A LOT of time together! I think it was mostly fun though :)

Needing input...today!

2010-11-11T11:20:00.002-06:00

**EDITED**
We went with the Fisher Price set! Looking so forward to getting it and MANY years of using & playing with it! - Total plus shipping was $24.93 - which was nearly 1/2 the price!
Okay friends, family, and frequent dropper by-ers who try to hide from the site traffic feed (oh that's right, I know you are there...okay who am I kidding. 3 whole people read this here blog and less when I have nothing useful to offer ;) )

Any'olways! I need some insight - I'm looking for a nativity set for my dearest little one. Not that I don't trust him with the breakable ones - not at all, I just wanted to find something age appropriate. So I need some help picking a set that is good for a 3.5y/o boy. I mean if the set could be made of up Buzz, Woody, and Jessie, and Ham as baby Jesus and be, ummm I dunno - not sacrilegious I'm sure we'd be all over that! But seeing as that would be all of distasteful, we just can't go that route. So my lesser evil choices are as follows.... (this is where your preference is at the utmost importance)

Do we go the Fisher Price Nativity Set route:

OR...The Veggie Tale Nativity Set route:

Why am I making this a public matter - because it's perplexing and I need some assistance and I'm sure someone out there has a nativity for their child that they love and their children enjoy! Due to that opinions are important.

We do currently have this one (somewhere) - but I think that maybe some livestock got eaten by the dog. I'm looking for a more FULL set and one that he really can play with.

Okay -- so I need your opinions pronto because this site is having a pretty good sale and I want to make sure I get the best buy :) [yes I'm frugal AND I want my son to embrace the true meaning of Christmas and be able to understand the role each person played the night of Jesus birth)

Holding to it...

2010-11-09T16:15:00.000-06:00

So I PROMISED I would give a lil' Halloween post - so here ya are!

Two days before Halloween we finally got around to carving our pumpkin.

The boys picked out a great pumpkin early in the season and we knew it would be the perfect one to carve. The boys set out to design and create their own face as we are more goofy than ghouly!

You can see that "the help" was more in it for play...which left my dear husband to the carving!

Will might have helped a bit later and was WAY more involved than last year when he got one look at the goo and ran!

Later Will decided that he needed dress up for the occasion and turned into Buzz - it's always good to have a space ranger around :)

Buzz and our silly faced pun'kin

Sweet Will desired to be his favorite charactered cowboy this year. I knew this was upon us - the time where I couldn't waltz into a store and pick up whatever adorableness I wanted him to be for the night. I winced as we stood in front of the many over priced costumes at the stores and heard Will yelp "But mommy, I want to be..." Partially because well they are all not cheap but cheaply made and the other is because he is 3 - every bit of there and mostly undecisive. I was not about to spend 10's of dollars on a costume that come the day before Halloween he decided was not suitable. So being that frugal momma that I am....I waited, and waited, and waited some more until well....October 24th. I knew a week out would not allow for a lot of time for mind changing and well when the costume was right in front of him -- he couldn't change his mind. So the wish to be Woody the Cowboy would come true for my fella, but it wouldn't be any run of the mill costume.

This costume was pieced together with LOVE and a lot of store running. I went to three stores for the cow-hid fabric, and at the second I called the third to secure their last 2 yards. At the second store I also purchased a vest pattern so that I could whip that fabric into the vest it needed to be. Another half day was spent hitting every party of costume store/tent in the area to find his badge and holster (gun removed for authenticity and because we've got rules!) The boots are 3 sizes too big, but thanks to Wal-Mart being the ONLY place selling boots it worked - he'll look awesome in them when he is 6 ;). The bandana was another wal-mart find, pretty sure they carry them ALL YEAR 'ROUND! The jeans and hat - well they came with the boy and the shirt....drum-roll please (badabadabadabada...) was a lucky loan from some sweet friends in Africa, who let our other friends have it while they are away.

The pull string was another parent creation...keep in mind his father was a theater major - we know a bit about costuming around these parts ;)

We headed to church for the fall fest - we were lured by the lights and games and came home with more candy than one should ever be allowed to have!! My sweet friend is on the preschool ministries staff and they all dressed up like Toy Story 3 Characters - they were complete with Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Barbie, Jess, and Bo-Peep. Of course Bo-Peep needed her "bo". So they stopped for a picture together (her sheep and staff were taking a break) They couldn't be a cuter!

You've got a friend in me!

So that is Halloween 'round these parts! We had a great time and even got to trick-or-treat with cousins this year (something about the load of sugar and the excitement of getting it kept us from getting a picture with all three of them - but trust me...the three of them were THE CUTEST!!) The rest of the weekend was filled with a great time with the Giffen brothers and their families and lots of cousin chasing in the kitchen :)

Meeting you where you are at...

2010-11-08T08:58:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up and opened up my new favorite devotional "Jesus Calling" . Every since I opened it for the first time on September 2nd I have been amazed at how it has spoken right to me. Surely it's applicable to different people at different stages of life - but I have SO enjoyed reading it. Today's portion was particularly moving as I have been so wrapped up in the "what if's" of life. So I thought I would share it.

Learn to appreciate difficult days. Be stimulated by the challenges you encounter along your way. As you journey through rough terrain with Me, gain confidence from your knowledge that together we can handle anything. This knowledge is comprised of three parts: your relationship with Me, promises in the Bible, and past experiences of coping successfully during hard times.

Look back on your life, and see how I have helped you through difficult days. If you are temped to think, "Yes, but that was then, and this now," remember who I AM! Although you and your circumstances may change dramatically, I remain the same throughout time and eternity. This is the basis of your confidence. In MY PRESENCE you live and move and have your being.

Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 102:27; Acts 17:28

"How many children do you have"

2010-11-06T13:19:00.000-05:00

Asks the oral surgeons assistant. I answer one, but everything in me wants to drag her through the heartache and pain of the last 2 months. What's with the human need to have your story heard, your feelings understood, and your pain validated? I hated that I wanted to say "I should be pregnant right now!". Really what did she care? She was just trying to pass the time while my meds kicked in, she didn't REALLY want to know about me. The question was asked again, this time by the pregnant oral surgeon as she explained she'd have to pull another tooth and that I'd have to come back in about 3 months for more work, she finished with "you aren't planning to get pregnant, are you?". My "yes" shocked her and she plainly said "well I guess you'll have to wait". Wow wait, really?! I'm bring told by a woman who doesn't know me and is clearly pregnant, that I, I have to wait to grow my family. I remember big tears rolling down my cheeks, some witty banter between the two women working on me, the sound of my music playing in my headphones and then waking up feeling totally shot down. I was ready, emotionally, physically, spiritually...all very ready for another baby. But now, now when I was ready the one thing holding me back is my mouth. The thoughts of "how dare she?" have rolled through my mind a lot over the last couple days. But really, is it she or is it HE? This is all part of God's plan, I was getting my wisdom teeth removed as one of things on the "to do list" before getting pregnant again. I held that as something very important, almost like a rite of passage. Why was that so, I could have put it off longer I mean I'm 27, what's a couple more years? I feel whole heartfelt like this "hoop jumping" is all part of the plan. The delay for me is more about learning patience, to live in the moment and not think about how old our boy will be when he gets to be a big brother or the age gap between our children (because there will be quite a BIG one). These are things that I've been fixated on. Not wanting will to be in grade school when the next child comes along, having them close in age to be playmates, and not to be so far out of the baby stage that we are newbies all over again.
So we are waiting, waiting on my mouth. Probably for a lot more reasons than just a tooth implant but for now that's what I see. I pray that we chose to savor our time as a family of three and look hopefully and boldly at the family the Lord is creating us to be.

It's coming....

2010-11-04T09:44:00.000-05:00

A post on Halloween and all it's festivities, promise!

However you may have more luck getting a post from this kid or his daddy since this gal is going to be recovery from a bit of wisdom teeth removal...bye bye teethers!!

Featured...

2010-10-27T14:43:00.002-05:00

Hop over to Better After and see our Kitchen Table redo, have to admit I'm a bit giddy about being featured! ;)

Farm Fresh...

2010-10-21T09:59:00.000-05:00

Our boy loves some fresh air, wide open spaces, bright sun, and the crunch of grass or leaves under his feet. Romping around my parents place is a dream for him and convincing him to stay inside is SO difficult! With bugs to chase, dogs to be chased by, rocks to collect, hay bails to climb, and sticks to find fun is had by all!!

handy (wo)man

2010-10-14T20:55:00.001-05:00

If you hop over here, you can check out a couple of our recent handy works (that seems like such a strange word). I'll be adding to this as I do more crafts; some inspired and some original. I love exerting creative energy and I thought this blog maybe the perfect place for it.

Silly Sleepers

2010-10-12T12:35:00.000-05:00

Open Wound

2010-10-04T13:32:00.000-05:00

I have an open wound, most days it doesn't pester me (much). It sits undisturbed trying to heal and taking in the fresh air to form a scab that will eventually fuse the skin back together; but then every once in awhile it gets bumped, some salt gets poured into it, or worse it gets deeper. A band-aid won't do as it needs to heal with exposure and will stay much to soft if covered. Not to mention that pulling it off would potentially re-injure or just hurt the same. It's the scab and skin fusing that is taking the longest - I often think if I could toughen up then it wouldn't hurt so bad and I could make it till it stopped hurting. The reality is that I can't, it has to stay exposed and so with that there are days that it gets bumped and hurts worse than others. Those are the hard days.
I'm grateful for only one open wound, while it hurts it hasn't kept me from functioning, from loving, from sharing, or from learning.

[I'm so thankful for the son the Lord has given us in Will, he is a delight and treasure! Parenting him has been the greatest role in life. We savor these days as a family of three and as parents of one! However, we'd be remiss if we didn't look to the future and long for a day to call our sweet boy; a brother. My heart aches - as wounds do, there are different levels and tolerances. I'd be foolish if I didn't share both sides of my heart - the side that is SO grateful for the child she has, but also the side that gets nauseous when I see a pregnant women in public. I am happy for them - but the nerves that shoot through me are often not tamable and my heart and brain collide, resulting in an emotional mess on my part. I've said before that healing is a journey...I don't know where we are in our journey...I'm not sure how far we've gone or how much further we have to go...I'm not sure if there will be stops along the way...but I do know we are IN IT. We aren't pulling ourselves off the course or diverting from the planned itinerary...we just moving along, some days the trip is harder than others. Again, I'll say - we share here because this is part of our story, part we want to remember and share. More than anything I feel that the Lord has called me to share this process - maybe it's for personal growth, but maybe it's for someone else. I just know that I want to be obedient and honor God, no matter.]

Being Real...

2010-09-21T19:42:00.000-05:00

*This involves some major rambling my apologies now, don't feel like you have to read this - I'm just putting stuff out there. All part of our story

When you face loss there seems to be a "time-frame"; an acceptable time for one to "socially mourn". I feel that time has come in my life. Right after we lost our girl, a good friend of ours said there will come a time when everyone else moves on and you haven't. That became my fear - I didn't want to be alone, to have this hurt all by myself, to feel broken with no one else around. Unfortunately he was right, that time has come for us. Here we are, pain not subsiding, loss not feeling any less, heart broken now just as much as it was 3 weeks ago.
I've fallen victim to the "doin' great" norm. You know the one, the one where you see someone and they say "Hey, how are ya?" and the answer (because it's acceptable) is "we're good" "doin' fine" "okay, thanks!" - because really that's not how I feel.
We are healing, but healing is not instant it is a process, one that possibly I never grasped before. But everyday is part of our journey to healing! Sometimes it's "one step forward and two steps back" There are days we feel great - but "great" is in comparison to the initial shock of it all. Great does not translate to "never been better" or "I'm all better". Most days, are just days. We hurt, we remember, we try to keep ourselves away from the "what if's" and "what could have been's". That last part is the hardest! It is hard to steer away from the "what if's" in life, but that isn't the life God calls us to live. That isn't faith - "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). A little over 8 years ago I first read that verse, that verse had a great impact on me then - what a challenge and amazing request. Reading further in chapter 11, verse 6 says "And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek him." -- WOW, what a promise!! What an amazing promise. Now I don't know what "rewards" means and honestly, I don't have to. Would it be nice, convenient, easier...why of course -- but back up to verse 1 - that isn't the deal!
I'm leaning more now on my faith than any other time in my life - can I just say I HATE THAT!! The lack of discipline in me that isn't better at being a witness of Christ, doesn't dive into His word as much as I am now, that I don't share. I desire to bring glory to Him in all I do and even more so during this storm - this chapter in our life that we never saw rolling in. I've talked in great length with my mom about how this can be used and I just think that sharing is key - sharing what a MIGHTY GOD we serve; that He has plan that can't even be prepared for or tampered with! That He has a plan for each of us - from the youngest life to the oldest! Sharing holds so much power -- the devil wants us not to share, our story, our life, our testimony our faith; he wants us to bite our tongue and not point or give credit to anything other than him.
As much as this loss stinks (and folks it does SO much more than that, but I'm keeping it PG here) I'm thankful for the opportunity to give glory where it's due, to have the blinders taken off my eyes to see fresh mercies, to be open to His faithfulness, and a receiver of His sweet grace! This all runs parallel to the tears that are shed, the feelings that get hurt, and the loss of a child; a daughter, a sister, a little girl that we will lovingly refer to as Eliza Hope. Who was saved from this world and blessed to get to sit at the feet of our Lord, a Lord that I so badly want to know more and more so I don't miss out on the opportunity to get just a glimpse at the awesomeness she is surrounded by right now.
So how are we doing? We are here...we are walking the path...we are stopping to tell our story...we are loving the LIFE our son brings to us...we are celebrating small successes...we are engaging...we are getting involved...we are seeking...we are praising and giving glory to our Father for all He has given and for the future and whatever it holds.

Thanks to each of you who are supporting us during this chapter of our life, for reaching out to us, encouraging us, and really being the body to us!

A dose of the Giffen's

2010-09-19T14:55:00.000-05:00

It's been a while -- and honestly words escape me at times so I think pictures are going to have to do...for awhile. Last week we added to the 4-legged population in this house and brought home (so far) the sweetest pup ever :) She is so tolerate of a spoiled 6 year old dog and very active 3 year old boy and our very busy life. She is ALREADY crate trained and WELL on her way to being house trained - which may not matter to you, but to me...it's HUGE. We've lived in our house for a year and a half and we've potty trained twice in this house. Needless to say it's seen some wear (or at least the flooring has)
The night we got her (someone is glad to have this pup)

He LOVES her and is so sweet with "our girl dog" as he lovingly refers to her

Kisses from "Max-a-million" - this is his nickname for her, prompted by me accidentally but when he says it, the cuteness is at an ALL time high.

Miss Maxine...you can see just how big MAX is in this picture and she is only 9weeks. She is a lil' love and we are so glad to have her the family.

She is good for all members; she puts Bevo in his place, gives Will some extra responsibility in the house, and keeps Ryan and I on our toes (both being alert and getting out to play with and walk her)

Because I am a proud mama (way more than a dog lover) I had to share Will's "All about Me" poster for pre-school. The arrangement may have just a bit of "Danica flare" but he picked all the parts that would be on it. Take a peek and learn a bit about our boy. The reason his poster say's "Will G" is because he is one of two in his class - so much for us picking a unique name so he wouldn't have to be one of many. Oh well....he doesn't seem to mind, we'll see about his feelings in another 3-5years :)

September 1, 2010

2010-09-09T09:00:00.003-05:00

Will be a day that will forever shape our lives.

The day started out as any other day had over the last 8 weeks, we woke up early, Ryan headed to have breakfast with Will in the kitchen while I stayed in bed for a few more minutes hoping that the minutes of rest I was getting would energize me for the day. A friend texted me to join her and her kids at a play place for kids and after agreeing I set myself into action to get Will and I out the door by 9am (which is sometimes more of a task then one would think). I was excited about getting to socialize with a friend while Will played and got a lot of energy out which was promising for a good nap in the afternoon. After playing for a couple hours we made plans to meet with Ryan for lunch. Will decided he wanted noodles from the mall, so we picked Ryan up and headed over to the mall for an array of choices. While the boys decided on food I took a quick trip to the bathroom, which was becoming a normal occurrence for me and instead of being bothersome I took great pleasure and pride in it and knew that the little extra pressure in my abdomen was a gift, a sibling, another child that we got to love. As I got into the bathroom something didn't feel right so I immediately went and found the boys and told Ryan that we needed to find a seat so I could call my doctor. We got to a seat and I called - they wanted me in right away but remained positive; Ryan and I tried to do the same but prepared ourselves for the worst. The friend Will & I had been with earlier happened to be in the area and after receiving a text from me asking her and a couple other friends to pray she called to offer to take Will. She quickly headed back to the area we were at and picked Will up and took him to her house. Ryan and I left the mall and headed to the doctor's office. On the way I felt awful, nervous, anxious, and was feeling God preparing my heart for what Ryan and I both figured was ahead. I didn't want it to be true; but knew there was nothing I could do about the impending ultrasound - I couldn't keep or cause anything to happen. I was not in control and had to have peace about it. We sat on pins & needles as we waited for my name to be called. They took us straight back for the ultrasound after a few minutes and several "shots" the technician wanted to try another method. As soon as she started it was apparent to Ryan & I that are worst fears had come true. I immediately started crying and there was nothing the technician could say or do to make what we saw there on the screen be any different, she pulled a screen up that measure the sound of the heartbeat and the line was flat - there was nothing to hear. She enlarged the image of our baby, and there it lay...still and without a heartbeat. It was the biggest we had ever seen this sweet child that we would never meet - but in that moment I felt more like I knew them than ever before (13 weeks was enough for me to know them). On top of that extreme sense of ownership I felt like I had just lost a huge part of my heart and life. Devastation, heartache, and hurt are only the beginning of the feelings we have experienced over the last week.

The loss of our second child has rocked our world more than we could have ever imagined. We are abundantly grateful for the gift of life the Lord has given to us in our son, Will, and cherish him more and more as we realize how quickly a life can be taken and how we take for granted that life is never really ours to begin with. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such great "family" here in TN and have quickly been engulfed in loving arms and catered to in so many special ways. Our God has such big plans for our life that in 2008 when He was moving us here He was setting His people into action, moving men & women into position to become some of our closest friends. People we could lean on, talk to for hours while they listen and hold us when we cry, watch our son when we need a chance to catch our breaths in this overwhelming experience, and know our pain because they have suffered the same loss we have. We are blessed beyond imagine and for that we are so grateful. It doesn't erase the pain or replace the void we have and will have as the year goes on and as March comes and goes and we watch our due date pass and have no sweet babe in our arms to share. But it certainly makes the road easier to walk, renews our strength, and reminds us that we serve a HUGE God with an enormous plans for not only us, those are around us, and even that He cared for our sweet second child enough to want to hold them before we do.

I have been amazed at God's presence during this all -- not that there has ever been doubt of His hand in this, but how He is showing up in unexpected ways. He is truly such an intimate God and one that meets us right where we are at. From our Doctor who is a Christian and has had a miscarriage herself, to a necklace I found with the charms "hope", an angel wing and an aquamarine bead (the "to be" birthstone of our baby) after reading Hebrews 10:23 that morning. He even had three different women from 3 different areas of my life write to me and include the verse Psalms 34:18 - the same verse He placed on my heart as we sat in the examination room waiting for our Doctor to come and talk with us.

God has made sure that in every area our needs are met, my parents were able to get her last Wednesday night and stayed with Will all day on Thursday while Ryan and I were at the hospital for my procedure. They were able to stay through Saturday so Ryan could get back to work and so that I wasn't' left alone. Once they left friends stepped in by bringing meals, sending cards, having me over so I could just talk and share and release all the thoughts I've had on my mind and heart, and sent "a daily word" through email to remind me that "God is for us". We've been blessed with such a sweet family that has stepped up and sent messages of concern & support that have comforted us, chatted at length through texts because words would escape if a conversation happened on the phone, let us know that our loss is real and our pain is natural. We are loved and without each of these people this road would be so much more difficult - this journey would not be able to be shared - and our hearts would be hardened. We are so grateful for the renewing that God is providing during this time, the hope that we clearly see He has promised, and the peace that He will make all things new.

Oh, our hearts hurt - there are days where staying in bed seems like a better alternative - but God has given us life - He ignites in us breath - and He strengthens us to face each day and know that He is SO faithful! Our pain is deep and we know the healing will be a journey - but we cling tightly to the promise in Jeremiah "I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint" Jer. 31:25

** We wanted to share about this because this is our life, our blog details the happenings in our life, and it serves as a keeper of our story that can be shared with our children, their children, and maybe even the children of our grandchildren. In addition many of you have expressed great concern and we wanted to let you in on our life, we would have shared our joyous announcement with you today and so we feel it only fitting that we share our loss.

A First...

2010-09-08T16:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a BIG day for our favorite lil' guy! He started preschool yesterday :) Ryan and I both took him and once we were let in the doors (we were possibly a lil' over excited about getting there yesterday), he was the first kiddo to his class. We set his nap mat, backpack, & lunch box by his name & picture outside of the room and then put his drink & snack in the cubby. He then identified HIS NAME on a popsicle and together we selected what his job would be for the day (LIGHT MONITOR).
He got right to playing after he took care of all the initial business and we chatted briefly with his teacher, Miss Rachell, and gave kisses & hugs and were on our way.
When I went to pick him up he looked a bit sleepy and still had his "wu-ffy" in his hand (the stuffed toy he decided will nap with him at school each day.) When I asked if he napped he said "yay" in the most tired way and clung tightly to me. After gather all his belongings he looked at me and said "Where's my dad?" When I told him he was still at work, he said "still?" I'm sure his time at preschool went quickly but still felt like a long time - surely daddy should be home and with mommy to pick Will up from school. I took the tuckered out boy for a treat and some errands and he snuggled in my arms most of our trip. It was a sweet treat to have my 3 year old be so cuddly and rewarding for both of us to have made it through the day and then get to enjoy some special time together.
At dinner last night he shared with Ryan & I all the contents of his folder and explained what each paper was all about and what"craft" it was. He was so proud to share his work and talk about what he did. As Ryan was tucking Will in to bed last night I peeked in and listened to Will's prayers - all 7 of his classmates were covered in prayer last night and his teacher too! Such a sweet heart he has and one that I know longs to learn, please, and love. We couldn't be more proud of our first day of school boy and are so excited that this is just the beginning :)

Transitions

2010-09-06T19:14:00.000-05:00

This week has been far from stress free or normal (to say the very least, I'll share more later, but for this post I'm going to focus on our boy and our future). Last week we went to Will's pre-school open house. I knew then that I had a lot to do as I had put off supply shopping and a lot of other little things. Our family has been so excited about this new adventure and it has been a "the carrot" that has gotten us through the summer. Will has hit a lot of benchmarks through the summer and I have to say that I think many were achieved with the hope that Pre-school when come more quickly :)

Tomorrow I'll take this little boy to school....

Well not exactly that little boy - more like THIS little boy.

I'm not sure where the time has gone between these pictures but suddenly I have a "BIG BOY"!

Tonight as my guys were out with friends I got my craft on -- one of my most therapeutic hobbies. I love to exert creativity and actually see a project to completion (well and of course be pleased with the final product.) For this I used a product I've NEVER used before - "Stitch Witchery", I'll tell ya right now if you want to see the look of crazy in someone's eyes go into JoAnn fabric during "National Sewing Month" and ask for this product. I mean this woman looked like I was committing a felon - but probably in the world of needles & threads I was, but I didn't have time to mess with that. I needed quick & not frustrating!

As mentioned I have a lot of things that I have to do before taken my boy to his "first day of school" tomorrow. Some little, some big, some necessary, and some unnecessary. I believe this would fall under "big & unnecessary" - but we choose our battles, and this was mine. One of the supplies Will needed was a nap mat (the basic red & blue fold up kind) but I knew that a) he wouldn't sleep on that plastic shrunken gym mat and b) I know these mamas, and I knew they were going to bring the cuteness when it came to mats & covers for these bad boys. So I had big plans to actually order one, well when time became short I had to become resourceful.

I went to target and found a GREAT deal on fabric, I mean a twin sheet set. I bought this set for $8 which I thought was pretty cheap for all I was going to do with it. Plus I had scored late last week with a last minute purchase on his mat so I paid $4 (as opposed to $7). While at JoAnn - we looked for some soft material for a blanket but after saving so much $$ I could not get my brain around shelling out some major bucks for a material to make a blanket, when we have SO many blankies he would prefer. But while there I bought a half yard of blue minky fabric that I thought I could play around with if I got the urge.

I took the flat sheet and doubled it over for a little extra thickness and in my mind I think I was pretending it would be more comfortable (that is debatable). I used the stitch witchery to fused all the sides together to make a LARGE pillow case thing, I also edged it with the soft minky fabric. I then took the pillow case (from the set) and since the pillow I had bought was a travel one a regular size case would have been huge. I put the pillow in vertically and it's length fit the height of the case so I cut off my extra material so that I could make a mini-case.

This is what I came up with....

I took a piece of thick ribbon and bonded velcro to either end so that when it is folded up it can be "tied" together. I have some additional modifications to make to it - but for tomorrow, this will work.

When you get up in the morning say a lil' prayer for this super hero, his mama, and daddy that we would all be brave tomorrow and on our best behavior as we step into this new adventure in our life.

iPhone Stand...

2010-08-31T16:39:00.000-05:00

After a recent change in phones Will became (on a very limited usage) owner of one of our old phones that is sim-card-less and just has some shows and games on it. This lil' treasure comes in handy when all options have been exhausted and the restraunt staff doesn't take a screaming child as a hint to hurry up, or when we aren't shopping at Toys R' Us (which to the dismay of Will is not all that often), or when the lil' tike wants to nap on the way home from a long trip but we know he won't get nearly a long enough nap.

Saturday was one of those days - on the way back from a morning of outlet shopping our boy was starting to enter dreamland but we had a good 25 more minutes before getting home; which is just not an acceptable nap in our house. So to the backseat with the kid loaded phone. As we pulled into the driveway I looked back at our giggling boy - thinking he was watching something funny...NOPE!!

I saw this

Who needs one of those fancy stands when you have toes? :)

Perfect Pool Weather

2010-08-25T22:14:00.000-05:00

The weather has finally cooled down for some tolerable outdoor time. So last night we got out the pool and Will decided to take a lil' dip...

The slide has come in handy for SO many adventures :)

Will invited a buddy in for a couple laps

Since he loved the pool last night - despite the chilly weather & water, we gave it a go this afternoon too :)

It was a bit warmer this afternoon and made the water not so unbearable - I think one day of the week doing the polar bear plunge is enough for our guy

I think it's safe to say that my lens is a bit smudged -- but the general idea is there :) Slowly trying to keep the happenings in our life happening here. Still lots to catch up on - but we'll get there! For now we'll be enjoying some cooler temps this week and MORE outdoor fun :)

Forever changing...

2010-08-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

If ya haven't noticed I like to change things up 'round here a lot. It may actually be safe to say that I change the design, header, etc... more than I actually post any real happenings from our life. Sorry that's just how I am; I like variety. When the mood strikes me I like to switch out purses/bags (I had roughly 5, maybe 6 diaper bags for Will), shoes (preferably flip flops), and jackets...what can I say - I'm an accessory kind of gal ;) I would hate for this blog to go and feel all neglected because I wasn't adequately changing out it's accessories or accessorizing it correctly :)
All that to say - there's a new look, it may change again, it may get ugly, pretty, or seasonal...I'm just say'n it's bound to change

A trip to the hardware store...

2010-07-30T11:59:00.000-05:00

Normally when we head to one of our hardware stores it is to pick up some flowers or a couple of spare parts for this or that project. However, this passed Saturday Will & I made a visit for a very fun project. Have you heard about the Lowe's Build & Grow Clinics for kids? Well they are pretty cool. Every other weekend Lowe's does a project for kids to build and then take home with them oh and it's free! Each child receives an apron, pair of goggles, the kit to make the project, a badge, certificate of completion, and a coupon for a free Frosty at Wendy's. That's not all folks - parent's receive a 15% off coupon for any purchases made a Lowe's that day. Now if that's not incentive - I'm not sure what is. So anyway...we went on Saturday morning to pass sometime while Daddy was away at a golf tournament for our church (which by the way his team got 2nd place...still trying to figure that one out). The particular project we did was a bit more challenging for Will but - I have to say, I did a pretty good job ;) Will worked really hard and loved getting to hammer here and there. Here are some pictures of the craftsman and his handy work.

The project was a UFO and has a light that flashes on the top and legs that pop out for it to land. He decided that it was Buzz's rocket (although Buzz could squish it by sitting on it). It's pretty cool and he was extremely proud of himself for making it! It was a fun morning and something we will do again!

'Stache Man

2010-07-20T18:13:00.000-05:00

In case you ever thought it was impossible a 3 year old CAN grow a mustache

It's possible this one was made completely out of chocolate pudding -- but at least we know how he'd look with one ;)

An Afternoon at Radnor Lake State Park

2010-07-14T15:21:00.010-05:00

This last Sunday we ventured off for a Sunday afternoon hike, only a logical idea with a more than energetic 3 year old on our hands. On our way we were briefly delayed by a huge rain storm, which worked to our advantage because we enjoyed some Sonic treats. The rain couldn't have made the scenes any more beautiful then they already are.

Please enjoy this video.... (Click on Video twice to open in YouTube for better viewing)

Play-doh Super Hero

2010-07-12T08:46:00.000-05:00

He is just saying "Cheese" but thought that it was too cute not to include (plus you get a good look at the face of a super hero & how often does that happen?)

A dose of Will

2010-07-08T10:10:00.000-05:00

Here is a culmination of pictures of Will from the past couple months. As with anything when you go without it for while you typically overload on it when you get the earliest chance.

So here's a healthy overdosing of Will :)

3-D Will

Strike a pose Will

You can see where he gets his moves

Sunday morning style

A bike sequence

Thanks for sticking around -- I'll be covering more in the days to come. Trying to get all the pictures organized with the stories that go along with them.

Things to come...

2010-07-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

If you haven't given up on reading our blog I wanted to let you know that there are good things to come just some of them include; Trip To Ethiopia, Thirtieth Surprise Party, Fantastic 3rd birthday, Fun 4th of July and much much more. There are sure to be a lot of pictures of our boy too...so come on back. I promise I will update REAL soon!! :)

A Glimpse of Ethiopia

2010-06-28T14:39:00.002-05:00

This is a great slide show that one of the gals on our trip put together. This is just a peek - I promise I'll blog about it someday, soon!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Splish Splash...

2010-06-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

Our boy LOVES water, he pretty much has always loved it (except for maybe those first couple months, but he was unsure of a lot the world had to offer). We went to "Taste of Nashville" this past weekend and ~~sweated to death~~ enjoyed sampling some of the local (and not so true to Nashville) cuisine. While Ryan and some friends visited a couple places and I took Will over to really get a "taste of Nashville".

Somewhere between Will saying he was a humpback whale and asking me if he could dive in (the 5inch deep "pool") I decided to take his shirt off. All in efforts to have a dry shirt by the time he was done -- that didn't happen. It was hot but I guess not hot enough to dry his soaked shirt

Saggy Mc Saggerton runs into the fountains....

Then he decides that venture is not really for him :)

He was SO disappointed we had to leave. But folks when you don't plan for water fun - well let's just say things start coming undone, and that's why they invented swim diapers. He had a lot of fun and thanks to a dear friend cleaning him up wasn't such a big challenge; well aside from them waiting in a hotel lobby, all the while Will formed a puddle under him from dripping, and I asked for a towel from the concierge so we could go clean him up in the adjoining Starbucks potty. (Big, no HUGE thanks to that hotel for being nice enough , or oblivious to the fact we were not guests there, and letting us have a towel)

Numbers & Music...

2010-06-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Currently this is what our boy is ALL about. He has tunes he enjoys listening to in the car and can tell us specific songs or a CD he wants to listen to. He LOVES to play "hide-&-seek"...and it's debatable if he enjoys the hiding or counting part more -- I'm pretty sure he loves the counting since we often have to prompt him to come and find us :)

A couple weeks ago I saw this video on a friends blog and he was HOOKED! Since that time we have watched it no less than 141 times. Today as we were watching Sesame Street it was actually the song...he jumped up and down, danced, and kept saying "I saw this on your com-poo-ter". He then had me rewind it about 10 times. He was WAY more into this song then any of the other Sesame Shorts. This video probably won't be the coolest for adults...but it probably one of the best sounding Sesame Street songs that I've heard in a LONG time!
Hope you enjoy it as much as our sweet boy does

Common Conversation...

2010-05-21T14:18:00.003-05:00

If you've spent any time around our dear boy then you know he can hold his own in a conversation and some words he doesn't know he does he best to tackle them. So you can imagine the looks I've gotten when conversations have gone like this:

Nice, semi-interested, Cashier "Hi, what's your name?"

Will : "Will"

Cashier: "How old is Will?"

Will: "I'm two in half; in June I'm going to Mamaw and Papaw's house - 'cause Mommy is going to Af-ica!"

Cashier : raised eyebrow look at me

Me: nod my head in affirmation "Yes, that's right"

It's scenes like this that tell me two things A) my son will not have a problem witnessing and B) the boy should never know any important information about our family ;)

Maybe that conversation is something that makes you raise an eye brow too. Maybe you didn't know that Will's mommy was headed to Africa -- well that's probably because A) you aren't a cashier or random stranger in the middle TN area and B) I've avoided this blog like a virus because I just haven't had a whole lot of pictures to post...well and C) our mission has been ever evolving (and will continue to be as the Lord leads) so I didn't want to keep correcting myself.

I will be leaving for Ethiopia in less than a month -- 3 (short) weeks to be exact! Sheesh when I say that it really makes me think about all the things I need to get done. I need to be getting to! I will be traveling and working with a team from my church. Our goal while there is to work with a group (about 800) of youth (ages 10-18) that live in a landfill. These "kids" are here for a variety of reasons; too crowded in the home, too many mouths to feed, one or both parents are deceased, or they just aren't wanted. Whatever the reason they have found a home in the dump; this is where they find their "food", lay their head at night, find clothing, and live.
(double click the play button and to see larger at the YouTube site)

Our plan (because we all know our plan only means so much) is to conduct a VBS and teach English, Bible stories, scripture, organized games, the most important thing for these children is to also feed them during their time with us. For most this will be their only meal for the day. So we want to make sure they are "full" in their tummies and hearts! So maybe teaching English sounds like a lofty goal and honestly, maybe it is. Remember when I said 800 kids? About a quarter of those children have already been sponsored and will be attending boarding school come fall. This sponsorship differs from most because it will be taking the child that is sponsored and plucking them from the dump and placing them in an institution where they will have their own bed, clothing (and uniform), eat 3 square meals a day and have a "family" of friends, teachers, and of course the family that sponsors them. For most of these children this sponsorship means family - because their family has been non-existent.

It also means HOPE -- something that we often take for granted, because how often do we really NEED hope? What are we "hopeful" for and why? Is it something to make our person or status better? Or is it a true need that is calling us toward hope? Despite their lack of (well everything) they are HAPPY...smiles that exhibit JOY - splendor of the Lord!

Isaiah 61:1-3

The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,

because the Lord has chosen me.

He has commissionedme to encouragethe poor,

to helpthe brokenhearted,

to decree the release of captives,

and the freeing of prisoners,

to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,

the day when our God will seek vengeance,

to console all who mourn, to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,

by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,

oil symbolizing joy, instead of mourning,

a garment symbolizing praise, instead of discouragement.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor.

Please visit here to see the faces that have been sponsored and the ones yet to be sponsored.

You can check out more about Korah and the mission started by the Yates family HERE

Please join me in prayer as the Lord prepares us to be part of the plan He has for these children!

(Jeremiah 29:11)

One last flood video...

2010-05-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine posted this on her facebook and it was simply too powerful to pass up. This is the most recent video I've seen on the tragedy of the flood and gives a good look at the devastation Nashville has faced!

Packin' Up....

2010-05-05T13:56:00.007-05:00

So.... The Giffen Family is in full swing these days. Danica is getting involved with so many awesome groups and missions opportunities, which leaves Will and I some awesome bonding and hang-out Daddy-Son time. The other night Will had to try on Mommy's backpack that she is taking to Africa in June on her missions trip.

If Will were going to Africa, he would definitely bring "Woody".

This is his I'm a serious backpacker face... and yes that is his new "I 'heart' Cheerios" shirt. That's about as serious as your gonna get with Will-man.

Will has been very excited about going and staying at Maw-Maw and Pa-pa's house... and I am not so sure he knows exactly what it means to be away from Mommy and Daddy for four days. However, we did start to realize that he was going to be away from both of us when we were talking about what car he was going to take to "Ill-noise". First off, our green VW wagon is "Doc Hudson" and the red Sebring is "McQueen", both from Cars. He basically asked... "What car is Mommy going to take to Africa? Is she gonna take Doc or McQueen?" That was a fun convo...

Ryan

Sunny Son

2010-05-04T15:06:00.000-05:00

If you've met the boy you know he is a total ham! Character(s) ooze out of this kid like a slurpee from the 7/11. He keeps us laughing even when we shouldn't (because he picks the darn-dest times to be cute and clever, like when he's in trouble). Today was no exception and somewhere between him jumping from the coffee table to the couch and climbing over the back of the coach quoting Toy Story (where they climb out the window to save Woody) he snagged my shades and suddenly decided to strike a pose for me. Not that I was ready at all, because when I actually am trying to get a picture of him he turns up missing or looks anywhere but the camera (the back and side shots we have of this kid are ridiculous!!)

Today, however, he was just too darn cute!

"Why are you taking a picture mommy?"

"Because you are so cute!" .... "HUH?"

"You just look so cute in mommy's shades! - Can you say "cheese" please?"

Gotta love this little guy! We certainly do :)

Funny Flood Song

2010-05-03T13:39:00.002-05:00

Funny little ditty about our water situation...

More about the flood....

2010-05-02T22:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some additional links to hop on over to about the flooding in our area -- most of these in this article are closer to us (10-15miles)
http://mashable.com/2010/05/02/nashville-flooding-video-pics/

Jump on over here to see pictures of the flooding that occurred at our church - 2 days in a row!

Middle Tennessee Flood 2010

2010-05-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

As most of you are probably aware we have seen A LOT of rain over the last 48hrs - I don't just mean a downpour here and another there; but literally it has been a steady downpour (with the exception of a couple hours through the night). Folks around here say that haven't seen this much rain here in years -- which is great because I mean I haven't been in a flood since 1997 so I was due for one ;)

If you've been watching national news (or local if you are in the area) then shots like this aren't foreign to you.

That was just afternoon -- the weather worsened through the night and today many more roads have been lost to the streams, rivers, and ponds. Many of the neighborhoods that surround us are seeing a lot more flooding then we are -- we never knew that buying a house on a hill would be so important.

We ventured out to church this morning where we met in our education building since our sanctuary was completely flooded. It was only a "light" rain this morning so we managed. On our way home however it started to pour and visibility was awful! We did manage to see lots of busted fences and even a deck that was swept away from a home into a drainage ditch.

The feeling of being "stuck inside the house" makes us all a lil stir crazy so we went out for a walk. Again, only lightly raining when we started out but a sudden downpour joined as about half-way through. It was fun to get out and explore - here are just a couple pictures from our adventure :)

#1 Flood Inspector in Middle TN

The road behind our house bottoms out by a creek and it flooded over - two police cars and caution tape blocked the road off from traffic
(this is actually the least amount of road coverage that we've seen - we suspect that they think it will keep rising and the since current is pretty strong keeping cars and people off it is the safest)

The creek runs behind the homes at the bottom of the hill in our neighborhood - this is what our Sunday School teacher's backyard looks like

Will LOVED playing in all the puddles
(as you can see we dressed anticipating he would take the plunge)

How the boys got around

Bevo and I had our own umbrella that I may or may not have shared with our lil' pooch
Standing in the river running in front of our house -- the swells had gone down at this point; but the current was still strong!
The water runs down the street to the bottom of the hill into a large "pool" or "pond" - it's pretty deep in front of the houses at the bottom of our neighborhood.

We are safe and most of the major flooding is closer to Nashville, there has been a lot of damage and loss closer to the city and north of us. We even have friends in Franklin (about 15mins away) that are on a 6pm-6am curfew. There aren't rescue boats in our neck of the woods - but definitely a lot of standing water to be dealt with.
We are glad that the tornado warnings have moved on so we don't have the threat of flooding and tornadoes to contend with. Many have been gravely affected by this storm and we feel extremely blessed to be in the clear.

More to come as the rains keep coming...

Bits of our Weekend...

2010-04-25T22:55:00.000-05:00

Friday we took EVERY opportunity to relax - the inventive and always practical almost 3y/o in the family found a way to cool off.

I might add that he can get his clothes off SUPER fast when he puts his mind to it - like as quick as it takes for me to walk into the house and put the dog in the cage. Yup this is what I found, my son discovered a quick way to cool off on a semi warm day.

Saturday despite some very threatening weather I woke up in the EARLY hours of the morning and went for a lil' jog with a few of my friends

Just a few miles between friends - ya know just us and 32,000 of our closest pals :)

Our shirts say (on the front) IMMA BE (on the back) RUNNIN4JULIE

(pay no mind to those skinny girls I run with...I bought them all a box of "Lil' Debbie's" as a reward for their running efforts - they'll be plump in no time...maybe)

An early Saturday morning for all and a day spent in the rain led to A LOT of this

Those are my boys snuggled up together in bed -- we did A LOT of snoozing this weekend in an effort to make up for a stormy sleepless night on friday, early wake up call on Saturday, long rainy running morning, and then a loopy sleepy Saturday evening. My guys were extremely supportive of me this weekend and I was SO thrilled to see them at the 13 mile mark. Just in time before the storm rolled in. Being in the middle of a scary storm system is so much better when you are with the ones you love.

This morning Ryan & I sold shirts to benefit those in Korah, Ethiopia...remember that "E" I've been meaning to write about -- well that's it and it's A LOT more than just selling shirts

Hop on over and take a peek at what God is doing there and some of the sweet smiles that I'll get to be face to face with come June.

That's just a "snapshot" of our weekend - but certainly an upgrade from the lack of posts in the last couple months! Full, busy, and fun weekend -- those are always good!

Sock it to me!

2010-04-22T19:39:00.001-05:00

Just some of Will's finer dance moves!

[if using a laptop, now would be a good time to flip that bad boy sidewise - if using your phone you should be able to watch it correctly - everyone else; time to tilt your head ;)]

Shrek it to me!

[maybe this will cure some of the "Haven't seen a post about this family in the longest time blues" ;)]

New Link...

2010-04-20T17:59:00.001-05:00

To the right you'll notice a new link on the sidebar. Many of you have asked and checked in on my friend Julie. I wanted to provide you with a direct link to her foundation website and updates.

Julie will be headed back into surgery on Friday to widen the margins from her previous surgery to make sure they got every bit of the cancer out. The following Thursday she'll start chemo...you can read all of this HERE and a link to updates is in her sidebar. Please continue to pray for her, her husband, their children, and family that can not be with them during this time.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD." Jeremiah 17:7

Praying...

2010-04-13T08:44:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned my friend, Julie. Today is Julie's surgery -- please join with so many others as we pray for Julie, her husband, and their three young girls. Julie has had such an amazing attitude -- she has referred to today (surgery day) as a "small storm". Praying this "small storm" passes and the sun (SON) will shine!!

Happy Easter...

2010-04-12T09:10:00.000-05:00

We had a great Easter!! This is was our first Easter that we really got to celebrate here in TN. Maybe you remember last year and the case of the tot with strep throat. Well this year there were no sicknesses so we made sure to do it all :)

On Thursday night we welcomed Gigi & DaddyDoug to our home and on Friday we got right down to some Easter Festivities. We made no bake bird nest cookies, ate at Chuy's (maybe that isn't a traditional Easter event - but could certainly become one), and later in the evening we dyed eggs and enjoyed pizza (okay so we might have mixed some traditional things with not so traditional meals). It was great to have Ryan home all day on Friday - though we all had to admit it threw us off a bit since we constantly thought it was Saturday already.

Our no bake bird's nest

(okay these are mine, Ryan & Will were still decorating - apparently their birds like really glitzy nests) :)

Saturday morning we said our goodbyes to Gigi& Daddy Doug and had big hopes to participate in our church's Easter egg hunt -- but it rained for the better part of the morning clearing up shortly before the big event was to start. Unfortunately before the sun made it's debut the event was already canceled. I think Ryan & I were more bummed than Will - but that's typical when he is still too young to really understand what are plans are. Once the weather cleared up we ran some last minute errands and enjoyed a beautiful day outside. We played, took a walk, and even went to the park. As we were putting Will to bed Ryan said he was going to share a story with Will. Will naturally started selecting a book and Ryan tried to convince him that he didn't need a book for this story. Will sat down and heard the (extremely) abbreviate story of Jesus' crucifixion and raising from the dead. At the end Ryan said "so Jesus died on the cross and then" and before he could finish Will interjected "He was REALLY dead, daddy." Oh sweet 2.5y/o, how literal they are! (Good news - not sure what made it click, last night or Sunday school, but Will can now tell you that Jesus rose from the dead "He has RIZ-EM!" as Will says)

Sunday morning was early for us - we had worship care duty at church during the 8:30 service and needed to be there by 8:15. So we rushed around in the morning. We did have a few spare moments for Will to open his Easter basket -- he was SO thrilled with what the bunny brought him.

We got ready for church and Will decided he could pose for just a couple pictures -- I wish we would've negotiated a deal prior to starting the pictures -- had I known he wasn't going to be up for more pictures after church I would've a) used the real camera and b) maybe not put my son looking into the son for the first couple pictures. He allowed me to take about 6 and then he was DONE!! So here are the best

After church we enjoyed lunch on the patio of one of our favorite places -- it was a beautiful day and we LOVE eating outside :) After lunch it was naptime for all of us -- while Will napped the Easter bunny hopped on over again and hid some eggs in our front yard. That sneaky bunny had some pretty creative hiding spots -- he's so silly :)

I think the tall grass played to his advantage -- he must know that the daddy at this house doesn't like to have to mow till April :)

More hunting pictures...

Will is a really good hunter and loved running from one side of the yard to the other spotting brightly colored eggs in the tall grass and bushes (and maybe even on the car and in the tires - that bunny, he's a creative one).

It was a fun day -- we finished it up with a yummy apple pork chop, mash potatoes, and pea salad dinner and then went for a walk! Will is really at such a great age to understand what Easter is really about but enjoy all the fun little activities that the Easter bunny provides.

It was a great day in the midst of a wonderful weekend!!

What a Zoo!!

2010-04-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

Literally! Who would've thought that a day with the high of 65 and spring break almost being over for most of our county and a couple of districts back in already the the Zoo would be a zoo (hahaahaa!)!! Well today was our first visit of the season to the Zoo, we ALWAYS love going to the zoo and what makes it more great is typically when we go we are with someone with a pass - so it's free for us! (Kind of makes it feel like the St.Louis Zoo...kind of ;)) Today was a MOPS day at the zoo and we had a pretty good turn out...

This is 9 of the 15 kids that were with us -- the 15 children belonged to 7 mothers...I'd say we were in the right place ;) It was a beautiful day aside from some crowding but really not difficult to get around or to keep an eye on kids who weren't stroller bound. I think we went through more than our fair share of snacks between all the kiddos and enough carbs were consumed that each kiddo should have been capable of running a couple miles. The treats, animals, and friends is what makes sunny days like this fun and these children had fun! Oh and guess what, so did the mamas -- we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day or better children. Each were SO well behaved!
At the end of the trip the kiddos got to ride the carousel - this was Will's first go around and he LOVED it!! Amidst all the rides we took him on at Disney we passed the LARGE carousel up -- I'm not sure if it was time or what, but we missed it. So he had a lot of fun riding his trusty stead, the snow leopard today.

He kept calling it Bullseye - I think it is because he knows that when you are going to saddle up - that a horse is always the natural choice :) Plus Sheriff Woody always has his trusty stead nearby in case he needs to get somewhere quick!

Picture Post'n....

2010-04-06T17:47:00.000-05:00

Would you believe that I just may have some pictures (and a video, watch out) to post from Easter? Well it's the truth! My days have been filled with errand running, outside playing, bubble blowing, and mile logging. So hopefully sometime between sleep and all the many tasks that call my name I can get a post up here worthy of reading :) So be looking for a couple of posts coming up -- I'll just say both of the subjects will start with an "E" (and no...one of them is not "Expecting")
I leave with this thought -- when did April join the summer season? 3 days in a row of high's in the 80's - that is just CRAZY!!

GIveaway!!

2010-03-30T13:51:00.000-05:00

Not here -- probably never here, I mean what do I have to giveaway -- well there is that issue and the post office problem (those of you who would recieve birthday presents, christmas presents, standard mail from us - should realize that going to the post office with a toddler, or maybe just mine, is a nightmare! So sending things just doesn't happen or when it does should be counted as a gift in & of itself) Okay...so did I tell that there is a giveaway? Well there is and it's WAY better than the "rabbit trail" I just hopped down.

My blog friend, Sara, is doing a great book giveaway. If you have boys, have friends with boys, think you are going to have a boy, or would like to have a boy -- then you should check out her giveaway. She is giving a copy of the book WILD THINGS: The art of Nurturing Boys -- from what I've read about the book it's going to answer a lot of "why's" that boy mamas have. (Oh, and boy mama's know that there are A LOT of "why's")
Just CLICK ON OVER TO SARA'S BLOG and enter to win a copy. Don't have sons, the potential for sons, or know anyone with one? Enter to win for me ;) Just kidding, but I'd take the book if you won :)

Talented Friends...

2010-03-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

I know I don't do this intentionally but I tend to have super talented friends (that's right I do not hold auditions for my friends (ha) -- I'm blessed by the ones God has given me and for some reason He has thrown in extremely gifted ones). Which is no reflection on me -- they are all just super amazingly gifted people.
I have this one friend who made me this incredible wall calendar and I cannot even tell you how many compliments I have received on it.

(let's not discuss that it is March & that may or may not be a recent, like today, picture of my calendar - hmmm who's a lil' behind?!)

Seriously they have been countless - there hasn't been 1 person that has been in our house and seen it that hasn't said "man, that's so cool? how'd they think of that? wow they are so creative!" And they are SO right (this little lady knows exactly who she is - and I long to share a fence with her again!!)
Another one of my friends gets thought of EVERY time I set a glass down on a coaster. That's because she made us some beautiful tile coasters prior to living "the 'ville". What she probably doesn't realize is that those tile coasters that she started making a couple years back are just hitting the "blogosphere" like it ain't nobody's business -- what a craft trend setter she is (this gal knows who she is too!!)
I have another "friend" (I'm putting quotes around friends -- cause see, we've only maybe met once in our life - it was nearly 9yrs ago but neither of us remember it clearly.) You've seen her stuff before - oh come on I know you have, does THIS jog your memory? Yup, talented she is! (You can find her button right over the there to the right - I'm sure you've noticed the new addition in that column)
This next gal, well she is a talented that I just can't get my brain around (not that brain wraps easily around any of these gals talent). You see when I get into the kitchen and I try to do anything remotely easy it doesn't even come out right. My sweet friend made me this birthday cake

Yup -- that right there is a cake. The entire pot is 3 yummy layers of cake that taste like wedding cake and the icing, oh the icing is simply delicious!! The flowers aren't edible but ya know that doesn't matter -- its the concept the idea and the fact that there cake is standing up. Because you see in my house I might have seen that cake in a magazine and thought "shoooott! I can do that - how cute!" and then I would have gotten 75billion steps into the process and my kitchen would've been a mess, I probably would've cried, my layers wouldn't be even, the cake would be lopsided, and icing would not have been that perfect color and most definitely it would have been smeared together. Seriously, this girl has talent!!

Please know that the rest of my friends are super duper talented people too -- but I just had to highlight these gals today (especially that last one). Trust me; between excellent cooks, creative idea filled mamas, skilled sewers, web designers, and this could go on -- the girls God has given me as friends are pretty great and I just have to brag on 'em!

Sneak Peek --

2010-03-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

Can you guess what this picture is of??

I'm sure you can imagine who it belongs to...but what is it??