A Super Good Birthday

As I thought about what to do for Nathan’s upcoming 6th birthday, I tried to think of what would make him most happy. I know that he loves his friends, he loves superheroes and he loves Chuck E Cheese. So, we had a superhero party at Chuck E Cheese. This would be his first big birthday party so I wanted to make it special. Nathan helped me pick a fun cake design, I made personalized capes and we invited special friends. And this is what we came up with.

I’m really thankful for my talented friend Trina (whose super power is creating amazing cakes) who came and helped me create this ambitious cake. When the party was over, I asked Nathan what his favorite part of his birthday was and he replied “the cake”. Which makes me happy considering how much time Trina and I spent on it!

Even the little boys had fun, Austin shooting hoops with Daddy and Evan in the arms of Mommy.

Happy Birthday Nathan. You are a delight and joy to all who meet you. You have the biggest heart and are most kind. I am so thankful for you and I love you so much. May God give you many, many more happy birthdays.

Happy Birthday Nathan

A Proud Plug

The fast food industry. I’ve worked in it, we’ve all eaten it, it’s a necessary evil with kids. Lately, it’s been getting a lot of negative press (rightly so) for its injection of unhealthy diets into our meals and their sneaky ad campaigns.

Once in a while, fast food businesses go against the mainstream and do something right.

Even as a kid, I loved Chick-Fil-A. It was always a special treat and something about their food tasted extra good. As an adult, I love it even more. Because I know what a quality business it is. On the Chick-Fil-A Pearland facebook page this is listed as their mission,

"To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

When do you ever see the McDonalds franchise seeking to glorify God? Never. Well we witnessed CFA Pearland practiced what they believed this week. One of their ministry programs is the Cows Care program (how cute is that name). In this generous ministry, CFA delivers a meal to a family who has just had a new baby. THAT’S US! In their kindness and desire to glorify God, we received a delicious family size meal courtesy of our friends at CFA Pearland!

And it was DELICIOUS! So we proudly say, support Chick-Fil-A because they truly care about people and families.

EAT MORE CHIKIN’

2 Months Sure Goes Fast

 

I can’t believe my baby is already 2 months old! It seems like it was just yesterday I was holding him for the first time. The joy of working through labor and finally, finally getting to hold this little life that has been inside of you. He was big, warm and so snuggly, and still is! I keep telling him to stop growing but he isn’t listening to me.

At two months old, Evan is settling into a really good schedule. I can predict a little better what to expect each day. He is sleeping a solid chunk of time at night, usually waking only once to eat. For being my only baby born in the water, he sure hates his baths. It starts out fine and not too soon along the way, he lets me know its time to be done. His favorite sleepy time position is to be cradled in my arms with his special blanket (from Aunt Leilani) and a pacifier. The past month or so, the pacifier didn’t really help him but lately he’s taken to it. Let’s hope it sticks. I love a pacifier baby. He really loves it if the blanket is snuggled up to his face, which makes me nervous that he can’t breath but once he’s asleep, I will move it to the side. We’ve discovered that he naps the best in his infant carrier seat. I can only assume he still likes to be tucked up tight like when he was in my belly.

Even though he’s only 2 months old, he is wearing 6-9 months old clothes! Do you see why I ask him to stop growing? Good thing I saved all those clothes from his brothers. We had plus sizes already on hand. One of my favorite things he has started doing is smiling. He loves the sound of my voice and looks for me when he hears it. When I come close and lock with those big beautiful eyes, he just smiles as if nothing is wrong in the world. It’s really fun.

I love you Evan and I can no longer imagine this family without you. Like your brothers, you are precious to me. God has lavished kindness on me to give me such wonderful sons as you.

If You Give a Girl a Can of Chalkboard Paint…

Lately, I’ve been finding all kinds of great ideas that inspire me on Pinterest. You can find recipes, crafts, fashion advice and more. I love the DIY tutorials that make projects look so easy, even I could do them. So, I bought a can of this…

Chalkboard Paint. And decided to change this $14.99 poster frame (never mind the curious cat)…

into this…

a much needed message center in the kitchen. Now I can keep a weekly dinner menu for my family to see, keep the never ending grocery list and so on. But then, I practically had a whole can of paint left, so I decided to take this plain half bath…

 

and give it a funky graffiti wall…

The moral of the story is, be careful when you buy chalkboard paint, it’s addicting. And you’ll want to find new places to use it. Before you know it, it will be everywhere!

Extreme Goodness

 I recently found this recipe for a dessert that sounded amazing. It’s a combination of two very delectable foods, cookies and s’mores.  I tried it…and amazing it was! It may even become a new family favorite because each of us had more helpings than necessary!

First you make a batch of cookie dough except part of the flour is substituted for graham cracker crumbs, keeping with the s’mores theme. Dividing the dough in half, you spread it on the bottom of a greased pan.

The next step is to add the melted yummy goodness you find in the middle of the s’more…chocolate! The recipe says to lay the chocolate bars side by side but I separated mine and it was more than enough chocolate in the finished product.

Next comes the very naughty part…marshmallow crème, and lots of it!

Spread an even layer over the chocolate and top it all off with the remaining cookie dough. Bake it in the oven and this is what you get…

photo credit:Lovinintheoven.com

Extreme Goodness! After sampling this little beauty, Nathan said he no longer wants a cake for his birthday, he’d like S’mores Cookie Bars please! (I added the please part)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 cookie bars.

My New Name

It feels like spring here in Houston. God has been kind to give us perfectly gorgeous weather. So a few weekends ago I wondered what may happen if I threw some seeds in the garden. But I knew that first, I would have a lot of prep work to get it ready.

Around July last year, I had to let the garden go. We had one of the worst droughts in years last summer. I couldn’t keep up with the demand for water and, my growing baby belly made it difficult to weed. In order to start a new crop, I would have to rip everything out, weed, add compost and so on. And while I was out there digging and ripping and adding, I found something.

This is not the first time I’ve found something surprising in the garden. And last year, it was my basil that spontaneously seeded itself that was most fruitful. For these reasons, I am now calling myself “The Accidental Gardner”. In fact I should practically write a book about how to successfully not-plan a fruitful garden!

In fact the whole thing reminds me of my continuing life lesson that God is always trying to teach me. That is, that I am not in control, no matter how much I think I am. And a good thing that I am not, knowing how selfish, unkind and sinful I am. How sweet it is to remember that God who is perfect, just, good and loving is working ALL things for good. What’s more, just like the seeds I plant, thinking I’ve done this great work, sometimes amount to nothing. God redeems them and makes them bountiful. He is the giver of good gifts, our talents and good deeds.

Back to my story, I was about to pull up what I thought was a weed until I remembered that in that spot, I sowed lettuce seeds last year. Not realizing it was too late in our season for lettuce, I never got any. So surprisingly, I accidentally have lettuce growing in my garden!

Now let’s see if the seeds I planted intentionally grow

Milestones

Having 4 growing boys in our house, we have the privilege of witnessing lots and lots of milestones. There are first soccer goals, first steps, first time sleeping through the night (I am still waiting for Evan to reach that one!). Perhaps one of the most fun milestones is…

loosing your first tooth! Although, this milestone was forced. What else are big brothers there for but to kick out your loose tooth on the trampoline? I’m wondering how they still located it once it was knocked out, oh well.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t care how it happened, so long as he gets paid for it!

A Morning With Evan

Spending the morning with my sweet baby is such a treat, but isn’t usual. A normal morning is usually pretty busy. There are little boys to be dressed and fed, dishes to be put away, laundry to be started and school work to start. Throw a new baby in the mix and it can become hectic. I find my day filled with jumping from one task to the next and so on. Even in these busy moments, I remind myself of the great calling I have as their mother and what a joy every bit of time with them is. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sometimes on the weekend, I get to spend a slow morning with my family. And I am grateful God created these moments of rest for us to enjoy. This last Saturday, I chose to spend my morning with our newest gift from God.

How could I not resist this face?

So we started with a bath…

And were later joined by one helpful big brother…

Admired our cuteness in the mirror…

And after being dressed, crashed out for a nap.

Life is good!

Remembering God’s Kindness

We have all found ourselves in those moments where we don’t know what to do or we don’t know what we’re supposed to do. It’s even harder to find yourself in that moment with 4 kids!

Recently, I had a morning that was like that. The baby had a one month checkup and I had all four boys with me. Going to the doctor’s office with my healthy children is one of my least favorite things. I am not a germ-a-phobe by any means, but when I think of how many sick children have been through those doors that my children are now touching, I cringe at the thought of how long our family will be sick with that bug. To make this trip even better, I find out, after we’ve checked in and been called back, that it was unnecessary for me to have brought Evan in at all. Great!

I tell myself it’s okay and that I will make this trip worth it by taking the boys to the library to replenish their reading supply. While leaving the library and feeling accomplished, the baby reminds me he’s hungry. So I nurse him, in the car before we leave. As we prepare to go, I turn the ignition and “click, click, click”. The car won’t start. All I can think is, UGH! It would have been easy enough to ask someone for a jump but we’ve had issues with the battery before and I wanted to be sure we could start the car. So I called our Roadside Assistance.

First they tell me it will be a 45 minute wait. 30 minutes later they tell me it will be over an hour wait to get help. So here I am, at the library, with my four small children, ready to despair, ready to cry and ready to freak out.

Then, something wonderful happened to remind me that I am never alone or without help. Here we were, sitting in our car waiting and I realized what a blessing it was that the weather was so beautiful (70 degrees and sunny). It could have been worse, cold and freezing. And I thanked God for his kindness through the great weather that day. A little while later, a mom with two small children approaches me and asks if we’re okay. Of course, I fake it and say “yes”, even though I’m clearly not okay at this point. She wishes us the best and leaves. A few minutes later, she returns and says “I know how hard this must be so please take these” and she hands us a bunch of kid friendly snacks to hold everyone over. A sweet, simple act of kindness to remind me that God is good, all of the time!

It reminds me of the account of the disciples in the book of Matthew. And how Jesus continually reminds them of all He’s shown them and done for them. How often I forget that He does provide all our needs and never leaves or forsakes us. I’m so grateful that even through my despair, doubt and sin, He loves us enough to extend kindness (sometime through complete strangers) to us. I have to remember these moments. These sweet times when the Lord reminds me that nothing is in my control and even better, that he is good and in control of all things.

Top Eleven

 

Looking back on 2011, there were so many precious memories. And as I practiced with my new camera, so many cute pictures of my family. So I thought I would start an annual collection of my favorite pictures from the previous year. Here they are the top 11 of 2011, enjoy.

#11- I love this shot of the boys, taken on our trip to Flagstaff, Arizona. They were really happy playing in the snow that day.

#10- What I love about this picture is not it’s composure or exposure but that it commemorates a special day for Nathan. This was taken before his very first ride down the zip-line at Camp Tejas. He is still so proud that he conquered the fear of that very tall tower and jumping off it. My boys are growing up so fast!

#9- While practicing with my camera, I got (by accident) this cute shot of my cute little boy. I just love those big brown eyes looking at you.

#8- This year, we said goodbye to world’s best dog. This picture reminds me of our Glory when she was happiest, running free and playing with the boys.

#7- Again, this picture isn’t amazing but what is amazing about it is my Nathan played his first season of soccer this year-and was really good at it! He really enjoyed having his own team and getting to make so many goals.

#6- Another memory of firsts. Jacob competed in his first triathlon. He worked really hard to train and did really well. We couldn’t be more proud of him.

#5- This marks my fifth year as a homeschool mama. I had a third grader, kindergartner and toddler. My sweet boys were headed out for the first day of co-op this morning, and they  look so handsome if I don’t say so myself!

#4-Every year, our favorite summer activity is heading to the beach. I love this father and son moment by the ocean. So peaceful.

#3-Baby number four was well underway. Our first surprise baby (we didn’t find out the gender) was due in December.

#2- We welcomed another boy to our family on December 2nd, 2011. Most certainly the highlight of our year. Evan is a sweet baby and great addition to our family.

#1- All four of my boys together. What a great bunch!

How is it possible?

My baby is one month old today! How can time go by so fast?

Evan is a sweet little baby. He also goes by "tank" or "beast" because few people actually believe he's only one month old when they see his size. He loves more than anything to be held, rocked and to hear mama's voice. He also likes it when his big brother Nathan, gently rocks his bouncy seat until he drifts off into sleep. He sleeps great at night, only waking 2-3 times although he is a very light sleeper during the daytime. He has become more and more alert as he tries to look for features in mom's face, responds with a cry when his brothers are being very noisy and recognizes the soft touch of his favorite blankets. Sometimes when I kiss his cheek or chin, I even find a little smile on his face.

We love him so very much and can hardly imagine our family without him anymore.

Merry Christmas

Make Aheads

For those of you who know me well, you'll remember that I LOVE organization! My friends joke but I really do love my label maker :) Orderliness (is that a word?) makes me very happy. A part of being well organized is planning ahead.

Having a newborn in the house makes both organization and orderliness (I say it's a legitimate word) difficult or near impossible. Especially when it comes to meal planning. Through God's kindness, extended through our amazing church friends, we've had meals delivered for the past two weeks. It was great not having to shop for, plan and cook dinners for two weeks. I never wanted it to end! But end it did. Now I'm trying to figure out, again, how to plan meals for this growing family of ours.

We are still involved in our dinner co-op which takes care of three of seven nights but what about the other four?

I found these recipes that look delicious and might be the perfect answer.

I love using fresh ingredients. Especially fresh fruits and vegetables because we never seem to get enough of those. And I love using my crockpot, because it's EASY! So these recipes seem like the perfect combo.

photo from Mama and Baby Love Blog

What's even better is you can plan ahead (YAY!) and freeze these crockpot meals for as needed. LOVE IT. I can't wait to try them and thought you might like them as well.

This busy mom wants to know: how do you plan/prepare/think ahead for meals for your family?

The Newest Big Brother

 

Being a big brother is a big responsibility. I was the oldest of four children so I know the burden that can be. I frequently share with my oldest boys the importance of their own example to their younger siblings, of their need to contribute to the responsibilities of the home and most importantly, how to love the little ones. It’s not easy to do, but through it all comes maturity, patience and gentleness for young children.

In my experience, I’ve found that when you have subsequent children, the most commonly asked question is this…”is the youngest child jealous of the new baby”. Truthfully, I’ve never had that problem with my first two boys. They were genuinely excited and happy when the new baby arrived. Then again, the first three were all three years apart. This is the first time I’ve had children so close together (2 years apart). So I wondered (and mostly feared) how Austin would react when Evan came along.

To my delighted surprise, he has been the MOST loving, the MOST thoughtful and the MOST concerned for the baby! I am so blessed with wonderful children. Sure it’s difficult for him to learn to wait for Mommy and it’s a hard lesson to realize you can’t have what you want when you want it, but, he deeply loves his little brother.

He wants to help at every turn and is the first to let us know when the baby is crying. Sometimes, it’s the first thing he asks when he wakes in the morning is “Bebe?” Meaning, where is the baby?

All that to say, our 2 year old is genuinely enjoying being a new big brother!

A Golden Birthday, turning 9 on the 9th.

This month, we celebrated two births, one week apart. First, the birth of our fourth son, Evan. Second, the birthday of our first son, Jacob. I would love to know how other families celebrate sibling birthdays that are so close together. My brother and sister were born on the same day two years apart and I know they did not always appreciate sharing birthday parties. Does this just mean we're destined to spend two of our December weekends having back-to-back birthday parties? Maybe I should ask my sister-in-law who has 3 of her 6 children's birthday's in May.

Jacob looks forward to his birthday each year and likes to think of fun and creative ways to celebrate. So this year, he wanted to have a Lego party. Because of Evan's birth, we knew it had to be low key but I still wanted to make it fun. So we invited two very close friends...

built some Lego sets...

and ate some Lego cake!

The very next day, Jacob was hard at work on his birthday present. An 800 piece pirate ship. Needless to say, he was a very happy boy! Happy Birthday Jacob.

Guess Who

Having the privilege of being an all boy family is fun to think about. Counting up the gazillion sports events we'll go to, times I'll have to say "boys, go wrestle outside" and hospital visits we'll end up making, makes me think, "you gotta love boys!".

Each one of them is so unique. Fearfully and wonderfully made by their Creator. When Jacob was born, we were amazed at how adorable the combination of Ian and I were. When Nathan was born, we thought he looked EXACTLY like Jacob (even though he doesn't). When Austin was born, we thought he looked like a perfect combination of his two big brothers.

Recently with Evan, we couldn't see any of the boys in him. He looked like his own person. So what do you think? Who does he resemble most?

Any way you look at it, he is now a part of one handsome bunch!