Quiet Nights & Busy Days

Let me start by saying this:  Not every day looks as perfect and well put together as these pictures may seem but each day holds a few snapshots of these great moments, which make the rough days and teaching moments of each day easier to face.  With that said...

The happening in our home lately...

My little kitchen helper.  She joins me in the kitchen almost every night and just hangs out with me while I make dinner.  You can never start learning to early right? 

We enjoy having lots of playdates with friends throughout the week.  This playdate Gwendolyn was the entertainment during snack time. 

Tyler has been traveling again for TWR so while daddy is away we like to play.  Here was a dinner at McDonald's.  Gwendolyn couldn't take her eyes off Neal while he played.  I think she will be ready to join him as soon as she can crawl. 

Neal's new favorite activity is playing games.  We have gotten a few new ones recently and so we play at least one or two games each day. 

Creating fun cards to send people is also one of Neal's favorite things to do, as long as he can use stickers, lots and lots of stickers. 

Playtime never really ends for little Gwendolyn.  For now she even gets to play at the dinner table. 

Finally, you will always find some type of superhero appearance throughout the day at our home.  This week it we saw batman and then all joined in on the Ninja Turtle fun (thanks Grandma for the fun masks) 

After a day filled with games, smiles, laughter, learning and superhero fighting it's time bed.   The kids are together in the same room and so far so good.  Neal LOVES having Gwendolyn sleep with him.  Just a few weeks ago we started putting them to bed at the same time which gives Tyler and I a quiet evening (most of the time) which is always a good way to end the day. 

A Birthday Celebration!

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago we welcomed Neal into our family.  He has been such a blessing to us and I have learned so much from being his mom.  It's amazing how fast times goes, especially as you watch your little kids grow and change each day.

This year Neal wanted to have a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" (TMNT) birthday.  I have had to become a TMNT  expert over the last several months and can now tell you each turtles name, his weapon and I can even sing the theme song (from 1980's cartoons).

I think I might get as excited as Neal about his birthday parties each year 'cause my favorite thing about birthday parties is making the cake.  I had a ton of funning making "Michael Angelo" for Neal and decorating the house with Ninja Turtle balloons.

I worked on the cake while Neal was napping and it was so fun to see his face when he saw the cake for the fist time.  He was so excited he immediately starting reenacting ninja turtles and "saving" Gwendolyn and I from the bad guys.

We had a great time at his party and enjoyed visiting with everyone so much that we didn't really get any pictures of the actual party...but we did record the highlight of the party, the birthday song.

Over the last four years Neal has changed and grown so much and each new stage of his life brings about things that I hope to never forget.   So, here are a few saying and things about Neal at age four: 

Favorite Things: 

1) Any superhero (especially The Flash, Bateman, or a Ninja Turtle) 

2) Reading books

3) Being silly, or trying to get people to laugh

Silly Phrases/Saying: 

1) He calls M&M's "m & m & mies"

2) "Can we Skype on daddy (or Grandma or Gigi)"

3) "Mommy when I grow up big i'm gonna have fur on my legs, just like daddy" 

4) "Are you kidding me?" 

Neal has such a sweet and gentle spirit, he often comes up and just wants to give us hugs, kisses or snuggles and will quite often, out of the blue, just say "mommy (or daddy) I love you".  He has been a wonderful, caring and very helpful big brother.  He always looks for ways to help with Gwendolyn and always wants to make her smile or laugh.  We continue to pray each night that Neal would know, serve and love God, and pray that Christ would soften his heart and bring him to salvation.  We are beyond blessed with this precious and undeserved gift from the Lord.

Happy 4th Birthday to our favorite little boy!!

A Good Book

There is nothing quit like reading a good book.  I love it when I find a book that captures my attention and I find hard to put down.  I love sitting down in a quiet corner of the house with a cup of coffee and getting lost in the pages of a good story.  Though a quiet corner of the house is hard to find these days with the kids we still manager to find good books to read they just happen to be kids books.   Gwendolyn has already showed an interest in reading as well.  She loves to sit in her bumbo seat and look at books.

Neal loves to read and has always has loved sitting down and reading, or being read to.  We introduced Neal to his first chapter book this winter called "My Father's Dragon" and he has loved reading it with us.  It's fun to see his excitement over the story and hear his anticipation for the next chapter as he asks "just one more chapter, real quick mom, one more, just one more."  I love that while I feed Gwendolyn he comes up to the couch with a stack of books (at least 4 or 5) and sits next to me and asks me to read to him.

We read the books he gets from the library several times a day.  Neal loves to share his love of reading with others as well and I have found him"reading" to the dog and to Gwendolyn.

It's amazing how he can remember every word in a book and then "read" it to himself or others later that day.  Though my book library here at the house right now consists of lots of kids book with colorful illustrations I hope to dive into a good book of my own soon.  This winter weather here makes for a perfect setting for a good book, a fire and a cup of coffee.

Snow!

We got our first real snowfall this week since we moved here.  It was lots of fun to wake up to a blanket of white outside on Wednesday morning.  Tyler got the day off work, everything closes down for snow, and we got to spend the whole day as a family.  So what did we do...played out int he snow of course!

We didn't have any real snow gear for Neal but we managed to get enough stuff to keep him warm and somewhat dry.  Neal had a great time.  Gwendolyn got all bundled up for pictures but didn't stay out to long.  We all got to play while she napped.

The whole city has almost been shut down due to the snow.  I drove into town wednesday night to have coffee with a friend and found that I was not only almost the only person on the road but that Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, Dunkin Doughnuts, and many other places were closed early due to the weather.   We have mostly stayed home all week enjoying the snow, drinking hot coco and keeping warm by the fire.

I love that the snow has stuck around this whole week.  Makes me feel a little like I'm back home in AK when I look out my window :)

January 10 on 10

I love doing a 10 on 10 photo day.   Such a simple and fun way to remember our day.  So I am happy to be starting out the year by participating posting a 10 on 10 photo day along with my sister Amie.  So, here was our friday (well most of it)...

7:00am 

Starting out my day before the kids awake with a cup of coffee and some reading 

8:00am

Our day is well underway - Neal is fighting the "balloon bomb" and Gwendolyn joined in on the playtime a few minutes later 

9:00am

Time to tackle the pile of dishes from our company last night

10:00am

Nap #1 for Gwendolyn (she loves to sleep) 

11:00am

Neal playing with his sister.  Can't you just hear the laughter from this photo.  Makes me smile every time I see them together.  So blessed by these two kids each day 

12:00pm

Afternoon stories before Nap  

1:00pm

Naptime!  Everyone was napping (the quiet part of my day) 

2:00pm

Doing a little fabric shopping while enjoying a fire and a quiet house (this doesn't happen that often)

3:00pm

Snack time and watching a cupcake/cooking show all together

4:00pm

One of many daily diaper changes that happen around here

Looking forward to having daddy come home soon and then enjoying a friday evening together as a family.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

The Christmas decorations where unpacked immediately after Thanksgiving.  This year it was so much fun to see how excited Neal was about all the decorations.  It was hard to get him to be patient, he just wanted to open every box he could as quickly as possible.  He loved discovering his stocking again and was eager to hang it up for Santa along with Gwendolyn's.  He said "look mommy mine is a penguin 'cause I'm a boy and Sissy's is birds 'cause she's a girl, and only girls can have birdy stockings" (should I tell him that penguins are a bird also?)

Decorating the Tree was his favorite part and once all the ornaments were unpacked and hung Neal continued to look through the boxes in hopes of finding  one more thing to hang up on the tree.

Neal wants the Christmas lights, both inside and outside, to be on at all times.  We even hung some lights up in his bedroom which he uses as his nightlight.

This Christmas will be different for us, in that we will have a quiet Christmas here at our house with just the four of us.  I am looking forward to being able to start some Christmas traditions for our family. We can't wait to spend Christmas morning with these two smiling faces.

Our First Thanksgiving

2014 marks our first Thanksgiving at our house.  This was the first year that we didn't have Thanksgiving at either of our parents homes.  It was a little strange to think of having Thanksgiving here.  I was a little nervous knowing that we were the ones who were in-charge and that I had to cook a turkey (never cooked a turkey before).   This was one of those times that made me realize that Tyler and I are the parents now, the adults, and that Thanksgiving here will be normal for our kids.

We had a great time!  We ended up having 9 adults and 4 kids here for dinner.  It was a ton of fun and really great to have a few of those guest be family.

Thanks to everyone's help we had a great Thanksgiving meal and really great desserts.  Also, cooking a turkey, not nearly as hard as I thought.  We filled our day with football, games, and lots of food.

Aunt Jessi, Uncle Wes and Uncle Zach stayed with us the whole weekend, had lots of fun and ate lots of leftovers.

Over all I have to say our first Thanksgiving here was a smashing success. Anything is fun mixed with family and good friends and we were blessed with both this year :)

(Sadly I neglected to get a complete family photo of all of us, hopefully for Christmas I will remember)