Renee Robinson & Family

Walking

2010-04-28T20:16:00.002-04:00

Here is a clip of Andrew walking. For all other blog posts, please visit www.bestill1.wordpress.com

Moving our blog

2010-02-17T16:18:00.002-05:00

Well, we are moving our blog. The new site is www.bestill1.wordpress.com

We have also changed the title of the blog. Check out the new site for explanation of title and more!

Abortions and Vaccines- What is the link?

2010-02-16T10:23:00.002-05:00

I go through spurts in my posts regarding vaccines as you may well be aware of. I'm always interested in what I'm passionate about, I'm always reading about what I'm passionate about, I'm sometimes loud about it, I'm sometimes quiet about it. I'm ALWAYS in prayer about it.

In all of the time I have researched vaccines, I have only recently come across an "ingredient" that stopped me in my tracks. If you are in the Pro-Life camp, then this will surely get your attention.

Did you know that tissue from aborted babies is used in the manufacture of many vaccines? The vaccine controversy for me has now moved from safety to a moral issue. I can't knowingly support any part of the abortion industry. Sadly our tax dollars go to fund Planned Parenthood, but that is out of my control.

Here are just a few quick reads on the issue. There are much better articles out there, but this is only to give you a start. I encourage you to begin digging for yourself.

http://www.politicolnews.com/aborted-fetus-mmr-vaccines/

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Abortion%20is%20Murder/aborted_fetus_vaccines.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine

My vaccine passion

2010-02-16T09:55:00.002-05:00

Most people that know me well, know that I'm very passionate about not vaccinating my children. I usually force my mouth closed around people who do vaccinate their children because I don't want to push my ideas on anyone else. However, I first began looking into this for myself when someone first opened my eyes to it. Thus began a now 2 1/2 year journey into my vaccine research.

I'm constantly amazed by the CDC and their ties to the pharm industry. I do not trust the CDC, the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, and most conventional doctors anymore. How sad. This is due to the fact that it is one giant mega billion dollar industry. They are all linked together. Sadly, this industry profits when we are sick.

I can't even take my children to a typical pediatrician because I (and my ideas) don't fit well in their practice. This has been shown to me over and over again. I recently left a pediatric office because I was tired of the doctor trying to fear me into vaccinating my children. And that is what they do now. You are bullied by the doctors, who want you to think you are not nearly as smart as they are and that you are a negligent parent if you don't vaccinate.

I urge you to look into the scientific data for yourself. Don't ask your doctors opinion and let that be the determining factor. They make money when you vaccinate. Then they make money when you have complications and illnesses due to vaccines. They don't make money when you are well and healthy.

When your doctor says that vaccines are safe, that is a lie. How can they say they are safe when they have NEVER studied the long term effects of vaccines? There is a rise in autism, cancer, auto-immune disorders, asthma, attention deficit disorder, and on and on and on. The doctors are not looking at the links of the rise of disease and illness to vaccines that actually overload the nervous system of small children causing weakened immune systems.

I regret vaccinating Jacob and Zachary. I wish I had had the courage to use the brain God gave me to look into the issue for myself rather than just believing what my pediatrician was telling me. And even if they were to get mumps, wouldn't that be better than a life threatening disease or a lifelong battle with a certain illness or condition?

I will get off my soap box now. I can't help it. Few things get me fired up. But when it comes to the health of innocent children, I just can't help it.

I will be posting one other little known fact later about vaccines that you may find absolutely shocking.

I am including an article that I found very interesting....Even if you found my above post boring, I implore you to read the article below.

Mumps outbreak spreads among people who got vaccinated against mumps
by Mike Adams

NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) To hear the vaccine pushers say it, all the recent outbreaks of mumps and measles are caused by too few people seeking out vaccinations. It's all those "non-vaccinated people" who are a danger to society, they say, because they can spread disease.

Reality tells a different story, however: It is the vaccinated people who are causing these outbreaks and spreading disease!

Just this week, an outbreak of mumps among more than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York has raised alarm among infectious disease authorities. The outbreak itself is not unusual, though. What's unusual is that the health authorities slipped up and admitted that most of the people infected with mumps had already been vaccinated against mumps.

In Ocean County , New Jersey , county spokeswoman Leslie Terjesen told CNN that 77 percent of those who caught mumps had already been vaccinated against mumps.

77 percent of those infected had been vaccinated

Usually this information is censored out of the press. The vaccine industry wants the public to believe that vaccines are effective at preventing infection. So the media typically refrains from reporting what percentage of the infected people were already vaccinated against the infectious disease.

But in this case, the 77 percent figure slipped out. And now intelligent observers are increasingly seeing the truth about these vaccines:

• Infectious disease vaccines simply don't work. If they did, then why did all these children who were already vaccinated still get mumps?

• Vaccines may actually increase your risk of disease. Notice that far more vaccinated children were stricken with mumps than non-vaccinated children?

• The people who administer vaccines never tell you that their vaccines don't really work. They tell you that you'll be "protected" with the vaccine, implying a near-100% level of protection (which is blatantly false).

• Even if you're vaccinated against a disease, you may still catch that disease anyway! So what's the point of the vaccine?

The lies of the CDC

The CDC claims the mumps vaccine is 76 to 95 percent effective, but they offer no scientific evidence whatsoever to support that claim. To date, there has never been a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study published on the mumps vaccine in humans. The so-called "scientific" evidence supporting these vaccines is purely imaginary.

There is no scientific evidence proving the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines!

Does being vaccinated raise your risk of infection?

The CDC also says that 2009 was a bad year for mumps outbreaks. They blame all the people who refuse to be vaccinated for causing these outbreaks. Their theory, of course, is based on the imaginary idea that mumps vaccines halt mumps infections. But once again, it's all imaginary! As we saw this week in New Jersey , most of the people who get infected in these outbreaks are the very people who were vaccinated!

If mumps vaccines actually worked, then what you should see instead is the mumps infection spreading among those who refused the vaccines, right? It's only logical.

In fact, if vaccines really work, then why should the vaccinated people be bothered at all by those who don't get vaccinated? After all, if their vaccines protect themselves from disease, then non-vaccinated people are no threat to them, right? So why are vaccinated people so pushy about forcing non-vaccinated people to get vaccinated?

The shocking truth about infectious disease and vaccines, however, is very different from what you're told by the drug companies (and the health authorities who pander to their interests): Some vaccines may actually promote the very diseases they claim to prevent!

That may be why 77% of those who recently got mumps in New Jersey were, in fact, the very people who were vaccinated against mumps. The vaccine may, in fact, weaken your immune system against future infections, causing you to become more susceptible to future outbreaks.

Many thousands of Americans who died from H1N1 swine flu were the very people who got vaccinated against H1N1.

The great vaccine hoax exposed

Take a look at nearly every outbreak of infectious disease in recent years and you'll find the same pattern. You'll either see that most of those who got infected were already vaccinated, or you'll see those statistics completely stripped out of all media reports.

It's all part of the grand vaccine cover-up. Vaccines simply do not work as promised. Vaccines do not offer the level of protection against infectious disease that they promise. In fact, vaccines are far less effective than vitamin D in preventing infections!

Instead of shooting up our children with over 100 different vaccines (which is now standard practice, by the way), what we should be doing is boosting their immune function with vitamin D, zinc and immune-boosting nutrients from medicinal plants. That would protect them from all common infectious diseases at the same time, and it doesn't require needles or the use of dangerous chemical preservatives like thimerosal, which is linked to autism.

Don't believe the recent attacks on Dr. Wakefield. This was an organized smear campaign designed to discredit Dr. Wakefield before he could publish the results of his "14 monkeys" study that shows severe neurological harm caused by vaccines given to young primates. (http://www.generationrescue.org/wakefield_statement2.html)

There is a way to protect people from infectious disease: Give them the immune-boosting nutrients their immune systems need to defend themselves against disease. Outbreaks of infectious disease would plummet along with seasonal flu deaths.

Of course, so would sales of vaccines. And that's the whole reason you never hear health authorities recommending vitamin D even though it's far more effective than any vaccine at preventing infectious disease. The CDC, we now know, is little more than the marketing branch of Big Pharma's vaccine operations. That's why the former head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, is now suddenly the president of Merck's worldwide vaccine division.

Vaccines make lots of money, but they don't make people immune to disease. The fact that so many vaccinated people are being stricken with the very diseases they were vaccinated against is proof that vaccines fail to deliver what they promise.

Sources for this story include:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/08/mumps.outbreak.northeast/index.html?hpt=T2

Rejoicing in Salvation

2010-02-13T06:44:00.002-05:00

Out of my Bible fell a small index card with some random verses I had written. I read through the verses wondering at what point I wrote them down and why. None of them seemed related to each other or to a particular event in my life. However, one triggered a memory.

Psalm 35:9 My soul shall be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation

I accepted Christ shortly after Steve and I were married. I will never forget the feelings that overtook me once I had turned my life over to Christ. A huge weight seemed to have lifted. Seems odd to some considering I wasn't seemingly carrying around "obvious" sin. Gratitude that can't be put into words filled my heart. Thankful doesn't seem powerful enough.

I remember walking through the lobby of my office building at work and being overwhelmed by the thought that no matter how bad my day was, no matter if the worst thing in the world happened to me, no matter what in the world....I was going to heaven. The worst that this world had to offer was no match for what was waiting for me on the other side of this life. And I remember having this joy inside of me that I had never experienced before simply by understanding this.

When I read Psalm 35:9 this morning, my mind was flooded with the memory of the day I first realized the gift I had been given. I remember once hearing Beth Moore say, "May we never walk into church with our common place shoes on."

Today I pray that I never see my salvation as common. I pray that every day I remember that feeling that I felt when I first realized what salvation really meant. And what it meant to KNOW, really know that I was going to heaven one day. No more wondering IF I was, or hoping I had been good enough. I didn't have to be good enough. God knew I couldn't possibly be, so He offered His son for me.

Chick fil A

2010-02-05T12:39:00.003-05:00

The snowfall has begun and the thought of being trapped all weekend sent me and the boys to Chick fil A for a quick lunch while the roads were still ok. Not a soul in the place...it was actually very nice.

I can hardley afford to feed my boys there anymore. It is crazy that after eating a full lunch out, I have to bring them home and feed them more. Each and every one of them. They ate a sandwich, fries, and fruit cup there. When we got home, they were claiming to still be starving. So they sat immediately down for a pear, oatmeal bar, and a glass of water. Even Andrew was still hungry!

I can only imagine when I'm feeding 9, 12, and 14 year olds!

More snow, schools out

2010-02-03T14:26:00.002-05:00

Snow started around noon yesterday, and when it hadn't let up much by bedtime, I knew that school would be cancelled. Actually, that excites me. The thought of not having to get everyone up and bark at them to get moving is very appealing. So I told them to sleep in late and I would make a yummy breakfast. Big mistake. 6:10 am while having my quiet time, I was visited by Zachary who was ready to eat. I went upstairs to shut Jacob's bedroom door and saw that he was awake in bed reading! These little munchkins are never up that early on school mornings, but it never fails that they are ALWAYS up that early when they don't need to be.

The boys love snow days because that is when we usually make lots of treats. We made french toast bites for breakfast, homemade dough and pizzas for lunch, then with the leftover dough from pizza we made cinnamon sugar chocolate doughnuts. We've eaten well today!

I don't particularly enjoy running errands with all 3 boys. And it is not because they don't behave well at all. It is that it saps my energy just corralling them in the store. We first had to go to Costco today. I was praying I could back out of the driveway that was pretty deep in snow. Since I don't like physical labor :) I was not about to shovel the driveway first. So I just plowed on through it. Once we arrived at Costco, we flew through the store like Lightning McQueen as Zachary said. It all started to fall apart at the end when the cashier moved the buggy on the opposite side from where I was. Andrew let out the most horrific screams I have ever heard come from a baby that small. It was ear piercing. In fact, my head is still pounding from it. Meanwhile, Jacob is dying laughing at the situation and Zachary is copying Andrew's cries trying to make him laugh. This made for one very loud scene. I don't embarrass too easily, but this one was pretty embarrassing. But what really topped it off is when I was trying to unload my kids from the buggy, this sweet older man stopped and said, "Wow, you sure do have your hands full. I guess you won't be having anymore anytime soon." Ha! I guess I did look as frazzled as I felt. I always wonder if I look the way I feel. Now I know!

Unfortunately, I still have grocery shopping and Target to knock off the list. I decide to let Jacob be my helper this time. He is great at grabbing exactly what I need and following my directions. He ends ups saving me a ton of time. Well, Zachary got mad that Jacob was putting lemons in the bag because he wanted to. So guess what he did...he tackled Jacob in the produce section. Kid you not! What did Jacob do? Punched Zachary back. This scene is forever etched in my memory bank. As I pick my fighting boys up off the floor and tell them they can't attack each other over produce, they just shrug it off and are best friends again, laughing and carrying on like nothing in the world had just happened. I did notice a man staring at us. I guess he never had boys. And you have to have at least 2 boys to understand because brothers only do this with brothers I have learned. All my friends that have boys and girls have never dealt with such! I am reading for the second time Bringing Up Boys. I need that reminder that God has wired boys this way!

When we loaded into the car, I made the comment to J & Z that I was really hesitant to go into Target after their behavior in the grocery store. And really, other than the "attack" they were great, they were just very loud and playful with each other. Jacob's response was, "But, Mom, we just love each other. We love to play and have fun together. We aren't doing anything bad." And he is right. Except for the tackle/punch episode.

Thankfully, we got through Target just fine, with the exception of Andrew's mouth chewing on the disgusting buggies. And finally, home again. Ahhhh, now I can relax. They can run like crazy here and be as loud as they want.

However, right now it is so nice and peaceful. The boys are quietly working on building things and puzzles. I discovered a new trick. I once heard a speaker say that he paid his children for every book they read growing up. Well, my boys love to read, but they don't normally love to build things or do puzzles. So I have started giving them challenges each day. They can earn a quarter for each completed challenge. It is awesome to see them so focused on completing the challenges. Jacob has finished puzzles that used to frustrate him so badly. He has also started building his Legos sets without my help by following the directions. And Zachary has been completing his Design and Drill patterns and Trio building instructions very well. Money is a big motivator for them. Jacob is a big-time saver. He goes straight to his save envelope every time.

Here they come...quiet is officially over. But what a beautiful sound they make.

Conversation with a 4 year old

2010-02-02T14:28:00.002-05:00

"Hey Mommy, guess what?"

"What, Zachary?"

"Do you know something about Star Wars?"

"Yes, a little"

"Do you know about Darsidius (spelling?)?"

"No, I don't know about Darsidius."

"Oh, he is a really bad guy."

"Hmm."

"Hey Mom, guess what?"

"What Zachary?"

"Do you know I love to play the Wii?"

"Yes, I think I knew that."

"Star Wars Legos is like so awesome."

"Hey Mom, can you fill my water cup up?"

"No, you fill it up yourself."

"Hey Mom..." This goes on for another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get everything ready to leave the house to go to an attorney's office to sign will papers. And I have to take 2 of little guys with us, fun! So after the non-stop conversation and non stop hey moms, I had had enough.

"Hey Mom?"

"What Zachary, WHAT???"

"Um, I love you."

Heart softens, guilt creeps in.

"Thank you, Zachary, I love you too."

We have a few more Hey Moms. Irritation begins to creep in again as I see what time it is, Andrew is still asleep and needs to be waken and changed, and car needs to be warmed.

"Hey Mom?"

"Zachary, what buddy?" Irritation clearly resonating in my voice.

"You look so beautiful."

Hearts melts again. I kiss his sweet pale cheeks and lovingly tell him to buckle up in the car.

Zachary can wear you down with his constant conversation and he has the most keen sense of when he has gone too far. He knows just the precise moment to throw in a softener statement.

Later on in the afternoon is when I realized just how much he played me earlier. Pause, Steve is always reminding me that they play me like a fiddle.

As Zachary has finished his after lunch poopy, he calls out that he is done. I told him I would be there in a minute, I was right in the middle of helping Andrew and Jacob with something. Guess he didn't want to wait because I see his naked bootie in the hall only 15 seconds later. "Zachary, get back in the bathroom. I'm coming." Zach proceeds to sit on the carpet. His bottom has not been wiped yet. I start freaking out to get up off the carpet quickly, quickly, quickly. He turns to me and said, "Hey Mom, you look so beautiful." To which I replied, "I do not!"

Still Hope

2010-02-01T07:32:00.001-05:00

The Wii is by far Zachary's most favorite thing in the entire world. Even in the midst of a competive game of Wii basketball, he could still hear my reading voice as I read a book to Drew. And just like the pull of a magnet, it drew him right over to my lap where he snuggled in to try to listen to a story and play the Wii at the same time. Who said boys could only hear one thing at a time and weren't good multi-taskers??

Sweet Brotherly Love

2010-01-31T20:37:00.003-05:00

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Andrew loves his brothers so much! What is very, very interesting is to watch the dynamics between Jacob and Drew and Zachary and Drew. Andrew is different towards Jacob compared to how he is with Zachary.

With Jacob, Drew is very sweet and loving. With Zachary he is very rough and tough. Case in point above. Here Drew crawled up to Jacob to snuggle in with blankie and thumb. Tonight in the tub, Andrew wouldn't give Zachary a break. He just kept on and kept on throwing toys at his head while Zachary was laid back relaxing. Zachary loves his baths. He loves to lay all the way back and just "float". So while he was floating, Andrew is pelting him with soap bottles. Zachary yells back at him like he is 4 as well. It is quite hilarious to watch.

Jacob will come up to Andrew and give him a big squeeze while Zachary will come up to him and beat on his head. Two minutes later Zachary will be talking in the sweetest voice to Andrew and throwing the ball with him.

Bottom line is that all 3 brothers love each other dearly. They just show their love to each other in their own special ways.

Take Them A Meal

2010-01-31T09:37:00.002-05:00

My friend has co-created the greatest free website! The website is www.takethemameal.com You must check it out! I think it is brilliant, and I've used it several times now and must say it works beautifully!

The idea is that when you need to organize meals for a family, you go to this website and set up a meal schedule. Then anyone who would like to take a meal to the family simply goes to the site and signs up for a day. The organizer can include likes and dislikes, allergies, directions, instructions, etc. Then when people sign up, they have the chance to include what they plan to bring, which is great that way the family isn't flooded with lasagnas and chicken casseroles!

It takes seconds to set up a meal schedule. It takes seconds to go on to sign up to take a meal. It saves so much time and hassle. Everything is organized in one location. You don't have people constantly calling trying to coordinate to bring the family a meal. This allows the person to just rest rather than trying to field phone calls and coordinate people bringing them meals! Now it is all done online and the person receiving the meals needs to do nothing but rest and enjoy the meals that are brought to them!

So if you know someone in need of meals, go to the site and set up a meal schedule for them. Then email it or post it in your church directory. It is that simple!

Just Another Snowy Saturday

2010-01-31T08:45:00.003-05:00

The tune to Manic Monday runs through my head as I write the title for today's post. In fact, I sang it to my boys this morning as we sat by the fire looking out the sliding glass door at the breathtaking scenery. Each snowfall finds me mesmerized by its beauty. It never gets old looking at the thick white blanket on the lawn. I don't know which I find more beautiful, watching the snow fall on a gray, snowy day, or the day after when it is thick and fresh and the sun is just coming up.

This morning as I looked out the window from our dining room, I was taken aback by how beautiful it was. I was looking way out into the distance at a beautiful white farm house that sits very high up on a hill. It was as if the sun was shining only on that house and it's huge white covered hill. It was truly beautiful. There is something that I just love about the day after the snowfall. After the last snowfall, we were driving out of the neighborhood and I saw something that looked like glitter glistening in the snow in someones yard. At first I thought someone had put glitter in their yard decorating for Christmas. Then Steve pointed out that all the yards were glistening. The way the sun was shining caused the snow to literally glisten. It was gorgeous. This morning when I looked in our backyard, I saw the same beautiful glistening. You almost feel as if your eyes are playing tricks on you because you see the snow glistening, and you can see it in the air as well.

And with this beautiful snow comes freezing temps! In fact, this morning it was negative 6 degrees. I was immediately thankful for a warm home to stay in!

Saturday night we were having 2 couples over without children for dinner. So Friday night I tried to get ahead by preparing my mashed potatoes ahead of time so that Saturday, I could just pop them in the oven. No one ever told me that you couldn't put potato peels in a garbage disposal. I've done it my whole life and never had a problem. Until Friday night. After peeling 8 potatoes and cramming the peels down the disposal, I noticed that the disposal was not grinding them up, and the sink was quickly filling with water. Of course, it wasn't until 10:00 that I realized this. So I'm online reading how it is one of the worst things you can do to your disposal and all of the complicated "quick fixes".

Steve is always saying that I have a magic touch for breaking things. I'll admit he is right. Considering it was getting late, Steve didn't want to begin fooling with unclogging the drain, so he said he would deal with it in the morning. I didn't sleep well that night just worrying about what mess would be there for us in the morning.

I should have just waited for Steve to get up Saturday morning before messing with the sink, but I just couldn't. So I put Drano in the disposal. That did no good and if anything created a bigger problem. Because now we had a chemical backup. Then it started backing up into the dishwasher. I never knew they were connected! Water mixed with Drano began spilling out onto the kitchen floor. I started to panic, Steve was bleary eyed from lack of coffee, and the kids were sent away while we dealt with our minor emergency.

I'll make a long story short...Steve somehow disconnected all the piping under the sink and dug out lots of potato peels, reconnected everything, drained the dishwasher, and I cleaned up the mess. We were back in business. I was so impressed with Steve's handyman abilities!

Saturday morning found soccer cancelled again. So we spent the days indoors mostly. I did preparation for our dinner party that evening, the kids played their hearts out, and Steve did a little of both plus shoveling the driveway and front steps. The boys did get out in the snow in the late afternoon. When they came in they had the rosiest red cheeks and were covered head to toe in snow. Once shedding their wet clothes, they went straight to the kitchen where they eagerly awaited some hot cocoa to warm them up.

Jacob and Zachary were supposed to have ski lessons yesterday, but we cancelled them because they were forecasting snow. Seems strange doesn't it? To cancel ski lessons because snow is coming. The high was going to be only 23, which would be colder up on the mountain. And we thought the boys would be miserable out in that for 4 hours. So we rescheduled for March.

Poor Andrew got Zachary's cold. He always gets everything! Poor little guy. Most of the weekend, he has just cried. When he is sick, all he wants is to be held. He got so mad yesterday because I couldn't pick him up because I was right in the middle of doing something with Zachary. So Drew just screamed and screamed, then grabbed onto the table and just pulled right up while staring at me and screaming. I had to try not to laugh, it was such a sight. He has started "normal" crawling now as well. So his main mode of transportation is hands and knees now. He will still scoot on his bottom some as well. He has pulled up a few times. But mostly he tries to stand without pulling up. He will just try to stand in the middle of the floor but can't get the top half of his body completely up. He'll be so happy when he can walk so he can torment his brothers more!

We had a great night with friends last night! We had 2 couples over for dinner...and no kids. I love my kids being with me, but I do crave just adult conversation and meals occasionally. Last night was so refreshing! Of course, there were a few times we looked over our shoulders to see 2 little bodies in footie pajamas peering through the banister rails spying on our adult dinner. I would see a little blond head looking at me with the sweetest smile. They were so curious about what we did when they weren't around. So I snuck them a roll and told them to go night night! The first thing they asked me this morning is if we played the Wii with our friends!

Sunday morning looks different this week. Church is likely cancelled, though I couldn't go this week because Andrew is sick and Steve is working shoveling snow at the auction. So the boys and I decided we are going to just snuggle. We are in pajamas, we've read stories, played checkers by the fire, and are about to play the Wii!

Zachary's trip to the ER

2010-01-23T21:31:00.003-05:00

A trip to the emergency room is how we kicked off our weekend. So far Zachary is our only child to visit the ER. This was his 2nd trip. Steve and I had a sitter lined up and were planning to go to dinner. Around 4:00 I noticed this giant spot on Zach's leg that just didn't look right. Also, he had started coughing that morning. So I told Steve that I was going to have Zachary miss soccer Saturday morning and take him to the doctor. Fearing it was a spider bite, Steve wanted me to call the doctor immediately. Long story short, they said we needed to take him in to the hospital considering it was now 5:00 pm Friday afternoon.

Reluctantly, I called our sitter and asked if she would be on standby until we knew what we were facing at the hospital. Steve wanted to take him to the hospital rather than be the one waiting at home. As soon as they left, Jacob and I prayed that they would be seen immediately at the hospital, that there would be christians there around them, they would see a doctor that would be able to correctly diagnose, and that it would be nothing serious.

Our prayers were answered exactly! They were in and out in no time. Ringworm. This is our first time with ringworm, but evidently, it is not a worm. It is a fungus. So they just sent us home with a prescription for a cream. Steve and I were still able to go on our date!

Poor Z-man has a cold though and doesn't feel so hot. So his weekend hasn't been the greatest. Sadly, he had to miss soccer this morning, which he just hated. Then we had to cancel friends coming over tonight. So our weekend ended up different than we thought it would.

But on a positive note, at least Zachary is only dealing with a small cold and ringworm, and we've had lots of good family time!

What Kids Really Want

2010-01-22T09:43:00.002-05:00

I found this great reminder on Mercola's website today about what kids really want. He compiled a list of what kids around the country said they wanted most from their parents. As I read each one, I had to agree that my kids would say the same things, especially Jacob who just craves our time more than anything.

The Top 10 Things Children Really Want Their Parents to Do With Them
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
January 21 2010 42,378 views

Many moms today feel as if they are not good mothers unless they are racing around, shuttling their children from lessons to practices, and back to lessons again. What do you think matters most to your children? You driving them to lessons and practices? Or the smile and hug you greet them with after school?

If you guessed the latter, you are correct.

Here is a list of the top 10 things students around the world said they desire most from their mothers.

1.Come into my bedroom at night, tuck me in and sing me a song. Also tell me stories about when you were little.

2.Give me hugs and kisses and sit and talk with me privately.

3.Spend quality time just with me, not with my brothers and sisters around.

4.Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy.

5.At dinner talk about what we could do together on the weekend.

6.At night talk to me about anything: love, school, family etc.

7.Let me play outside a lot.

8.Cuddle under a blanket and watch our favorite TV show together.

9.Discipline me. It makes me feel like you care.

10.Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.

Children are incredibly wise and tend to see the world more simply than we do. Perhaps it is time we start taking their advice.

Exciting Day!

2010-01-18T14:39:00.003-05:00

Nothing in the world compares to seeing the work of God in your own children. Certainly no material possession or experience can come close. Even God's work in my own life does not stir up the same feelings as seeing His hand directly in the lives of my children.

I see it every day. The hand print of God. In fact, I see it a thousand times in a day. Often it is overlooked as part of life, but it is all part of God's work. The rare occasion that finds me still before God will bring to mind example upon example of God working in and through my children.

Almost not a day goes by that I don't pray for the salvation of my children. My hearts greatest desire is to see my children come to know Christ at a young age. That they will never know a day that they didn't know the Lord. And then I pray that they will strike fear in the enemy's eyes. I want God to use them in a mighty way for His kingdom.

Almost 2 years ago, Jacob accepted Christ. He still remembers exactly where we were. I pray it is always a vivid memory for him.

Today Zachary prayed to receive Christ. My heart is so full. There truly is no greater joy.

Over the last several months, God has allowed me to see small glimpses into how He is molding and shaping Zachary. I've seen God drawing Zachary to Him. It started as small things, like wanting to read his bible more, or talking about God more, or insisting we pray before meals including snacks and he wants to be the one to pray. I've seen his prayers change from things like "let me have fun" to "help us to think about You."

Zachary has often asked when he can become a christian like Jacob or when he can be baptized. I've always answered it by saying, "Zachary, when you are old enough to understand that Jesus died for your sins and you choose to ask him to forgive you and come inside your heart, then you will be a christian." Usually the conversation has ended. Of course, I am not the judge of when he is ready. God is. So I'm not sure why I've always answered him that way. Maybe because he is so young.

"Mom, I can't wait to die one day," Zachary nonchalantly said at breakfast. That is enough to stop a mom in her tracks. Trying not to appear shocked, I said, "Zachary, why would you say that?" He said, "Because then I get to be with Jesus forever in heaven." At that point many things started racing through my head. The obvious was this is a moment to continue planting seeds about the only way to heaven is through Christ. Another thought was "what if he grows up thinking he is saved because he believes in God and goes to church but he never truly accepts Jesus as his personal savior". Is he too young to even have these conversation with???

Zachary said, "I'll go to heaven because God is in my heart." I believe God allowed Zachary to say this in order to squash the thousands of thoughts flying in my head and guide me to an answer. I said, "Zachary, God will come into your heart when you invite Him in. He loves us too much to just come in without being invited." This time I said, "Zachary, if you are ever ready to do that, just let me know."

Wow, am I thankful that God can work through us despite our inadequacies!!

We loaded into the car to take Jacob to school. As we were driving, Zachary said, "Mommy, when can I be baptized." Jacob first responded, "Well, you have to be a christian first, Zachary." I explained to Zachary that baptism is only a symbol and that it is not what saves you. I told him that when he decides that he believes that Jesus is the son of God, died for his sins, and asks Jesus to forgive his sins and come into his heart, then he would be a christian. Zachary said, "I am ready to be a christian, now." Still not sure of what to do given his young age, I asked him a few questions. After he had answered them, I said, "Well, Zachary would you like me to pray for you?" He said yes, I held back my tears, then I prayed asking Jesus to come into Zachary's life. After we prayed Zachary said, "Mommy, am I for real a christian now?" I said, "Yes, you are and you always will be." He was beaming from ear to ear.

Through teary eyes, I looked into the backseat. I saw precious Zachary, smiling this proud, happy smile. Then I saw Jacob. The smile on Jacob's face absolutely melted my heart. To think back to it brings tears to my eyes. You see, Jacob has prayed for Zachary's salvation for 2 years now. The day after Jacob accepted Christ, he asked about when Zachary could be saved. He and I made a little agreement that we would secretly (meaning out of earshot of Zachary) pray for his coming to Christ. I had to explain that we couldn't pray about his salvation with him because it needed to be God's work. And we would not want Zachary to do it to "please" us.

Initially, I wrestled with the doubting thoughts invading my mind. Thoughts making me question if Zachary truly understands. Then a thought entered my mind that I believe God put there when I needed it. I realized who am I to decide when he is old enough to understand. God made Zachary. He put together his heart and his brain. He is the one that puts understanding into his mind and love into his heart. God knows Zachary's heart.

Later on in the day we were discussing something. I can't even remember what it was, but something having to do with Zachary doing something wrong. He said, "If I did that God would fly out of my heart and leave." At that moment Romans 8:38-39 popped into my head. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Considering I would never get all of this out before losing his attention, I simply said, "God's Word tells us that there is nothing in the entire world that will take Him out of your heart. He will never leave you." Zachary said, "OK!" Then he was off to play!

I will pray now for a growing up in Christ for both Jacob and Zachary while now we all pray for Andrew's one day salvation.

Full House

2010-01-15T19:12:00.011-05:00

The skating rink had no trainer skates. Instead the kids could hold onto the buckets. Jacob quickly balanced and went out on his own. Zachary did really good, but sometimes needed to ride on the buckets :_)

Steve always tormenting Amber

Forget sledding, Skyler wanted to snowboard

The week after Christmas we had a full house. My sister's family of five plus my parents, so all together we had 12 people in our house. Ages of kids 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12. To say the house was loud is an understatement. Did I mention 5 out of the 6 kids are boys???

The Patterson clan was coming in hopes of a great big snow and lots of snow play. Jacob prayed that God would give us another coat of snow. Everyone arrived Wednesday night the week after Christmas. Thursday morning we woke to yet another beautiful snowfall. Interestingly, Jacob didn't seem surprised at all. He had prayed for it, and he prayed expectantly.

So Thursday was a ton of fun sledding all day long. We created a great big sled hill in our backyard that is still being used today. I'm not kidding. My boys were sledding this afternoon in the backyard.

Amber's family stayed from Wednesday until Sunday. We ate, played in the snow, ate, ice skated, ate, played the Wii, and ate some more!

Homemade Coffee House Coffee

2010-01-13T14:15:00.002-05:00

I am not a "normal" coffee drinker. That is, I can't just drink coffee with cream and sugar. But I LOVE a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. However, that is not in our budget except for special treats. I've experimented for awhile with making ice coffees at home and was never able to make it taste as good as what I would buy at a coffee shop. Not too long ago, I found a great iced coffee/frappacino type drink recipe that I really liked.

I did have to change the recipe a little bit to better suit our tastes...

We usually have coffee left over from the morning. So I just turn it off and leave it there til the afternoon. The recipe calls for room temp coffee, so I try not to have to brew a fresh pot. Also, if we make an extra large pot of coffee, then I will store the leftovers in the fridge and use it throughout the week for my iced coffee concoctions.

3/4 cup of room temp or cold coffee
3/4 cup of skim milk
2 tsp sugar (or whatever you like)
1 TBS chocolate syrup (recipe called for 2 TBS, that was too sweet for us)
1 TBS flavored coffee creamer (my favorite is Coffee Mate Italian Sweet Cream)
3 Ice Cubes

Pour it all into a cup with a sealed lid and shake well. I use my Magic Bullet cups with lids or a mason jar with a lid. Shake really well until it is all mixed up, this also makes the top a bit frothy, and stick a straw in it. It is really good!

I TRY to make mine a tad bit not so bad for me. I use organic coffee and milk, sucanat instead of sugar, organic chocolate syrup, then I blow all of that with the highly processed and artificial flavored coffee creamer :) If anyone has some suggestions for healthy flavored coffee creamer, please pass it along.

Life this week

2010-01-13T12:38:00.003-05:00

Well, we did get snow again last Friday. So my little munchkins were home again. Thankfully starting today we are warming into the 40s. We feel as if we are about to be in 70 degree weather. I can't wait to get outside with the kids to play again!!

While eating breakfast this morning, Jacob was telling me that he still wants to be an army guy when he grows up. Zachary said, "I want to be a person that sells Wiis when I grow up." He is still loving the Wii.

Andrew is really, really changing fast now. He loves his daddy! When I get him up in the morning, he points towards our bedroom and says,"Daddy, Daddy." In the evening when all the male energy is being expended on the floor, he wants to be a part of it now.

Jacob and Zachary want Andrew playing with them at all times now. Well, Zachary loves it until Drew destroys the train table or knocks down his mega blocks. Then Zach screams and calls him a destroyer. Jacob has extreme patience with him and will sit with him forever reading to him or playing with him. Both boys are very protective of him and love when I give them some independence to "watch" him for me.

Drew is now doing both his bottom scoot and a traditional hands and knee crawl to get around. He does strange movements with his body to move that are very funny. He wants to stand up but has no balance unless he is propped on something. He is very chatty and sounds as if he is speaking another language. The expressions on his face are so sweet when he is talking.

He is super interactive with his brothers now. His body can't keep up, but he is trying his best. He wants to be doing everything they are doing. I have accepted the fact that he will end up "all boy", wild, and rambunctious like my other 2 boys. Steve is always telling me to let them just be boys. Then again, he isn't home all day listening to the noise level and watching the daring stunts that are attempted. They simply can't play with something the way it was intended. Their pool sticks became battle swords, which died in battle. Their jump house has become a fort at times and a stunt house at times. I had to leave the room when I saw that they were taking running dives OUT of the jump house to see how far they could jump out of the jump house, diving down the ramp to see who could make it the furthest. Boys are just crazy!

At the end of the day when I'm totally spent from keeping them alive, I thank God for His sense of humor when He blessed me with these wild animals. I can't imagine life without a noisy house and exuberant energy.

Back in the swing of things

2010-01-07T19:52:00.002-05:00

Well, I was just thinking that we were getting back into the swing of things. Then we saw that the streets and driveway are again covered in snow. So just as the boys are adjusting to getting back into school this week, I wonder if they will be home tomorrow?

We have had snow on the ground for 3 weeks now! So to all my friends here that told me winters aren't much different than in Hotlanta, I say you are crazy! I'm freezing! Actually, I'm not as cold as I was last year even though it is much much colder so far this year. That is because Steve and I are prepared this time. We bought fleece sheets for all the beds, we all sleep in full fleece pajamas (our house isn't very warm), and I am usually found walking around my house with either a scarf or a jacket on for an extra layer of warmth. There have even been days that I've worn base layers under my clothes!

You would think we would be tired of the snow, but we really aren't. The boys have a great sled hill carved out in the backyard now that is long and fast. In fact, it is like one long sheet of ice now. It is so icy, that Zachary could barely walk back up the hill. He just kept slipping and couldn't get a grip to walk. I was watching Jacob and Zachary sled in the backyard while I was cooking dinner and was stunned to see how fast they were going. After watching them crash into 2 trees, I made them put on helmets. Thankfully, they didn't even balk. Later that evening they informed us that they went so fast down the hill that it shot them into the road. Guess I wasn't watching that closely. The crazy thing about that is that there is a pretty deep ditch between our yard and the road. So they were going so fast that they went down into the ditch then up again and out into the street!

So we'll see if the boys are home with me tomorrow! When I told Jacob that he might not have school, he was not happy about it. Gotta love kindergarten! Each day this week, he has told me about what he is looking forward to for the next day.

Weird formatting issues

2009-12-29T10:10:00.002-05:00

On the Christmas posts, blogspot has some strange formatting bugs. Once it publishes, it changes my formats. Nothing I can do about it, just so you know that I know it looks weird!

Christmas Day

2009-12-27T21:05:00.006-05:00

I'm sad to say that we didn't get many pictures on Christmas morning. I guess we lived the moment rather than preserving it! Seemed that everything happened so quickly that we just missed the moments to snap more pictures.

Even as an adult, I find myself having interrupted sleep Christmas Eve night. I woke up so many times wondering what time it was. Finally at 5:30 I decided I would get up and start the coffee, brush my teeth, and wait for everyone else to get up. In the past Steve and I have been up just waiting on the kids. Not this year! 5:41 I'm tiptoeing down the stairs quiet as a mouse, when Jacob comes bursting from his room eyes wild with excitement. He saw me on the stairs and said, "Mommy, did Santa come?" I said, "I don't know, I was on my way to check." After checking it out, I came upstairs and reported that Santa had in fact visited us.

He was so excited, but I had to tell him we couldn't wake up Zachary at 5:45! Zachary is a bear in the mornings, especially if you wake him. Last year we woke him up and we all regretted it. So Jacob and I got back in bed with Steve and laid there waiting for time to pass. Finally at 6:00 we couldn't wait any longer. We went to wake the sleeping bear. He did better, but it did take him about 10 minutes to rouse himself from sleep. We decided to let Drew sleep in!

Once Andrew was up, we let the boys start opening the presents from Santa that were wrapped. While he was still asleep, they looked at their unwrapped presents. They both got most of the items on their lists so they were thrilled.

The day was spent playing all day long! I don't think any of us got out of our pajamas all day.

Cabin Fever

2009-12-27T20:56:00.003-05:00

I did not leave my house from last Friday until Tuesday afternoon. Since then, I haven't left much only because it has been too hard to get all the kids out to do errands in the snow. The day after Christmas I went out in the morning and did a little bit of shopping, which was so nice! I loved the time by myself!! Once I returned, Steve escaped for a bit. He is so thoughtful. Even on his time out by himself, he came back with clothes for me. Then we all got out in the afternoon. That was really the first day we have been out much since the snow.

This morning I was in a pretty foul mood. I hate when that happens on a Sunday morning. I was in a bad mood at the thought of all that I needed to do around the house. Steve is almost always in a good mood, so I feel bad to be so snarly. He patiently listened to my endless complaints and moaning, then said, "After church we are going to Charlottesville to go shopping." He knows EXACTLY how to cheer a girl up :) Of course, Steve knew that in order to preserve my sanity, it was necessary to get away from our house today!

So we left straight from church to Charlottesville. We had lunch then shopped. It was the perfect outing. And we were still home in time to get everything done. Christmas decorations are packed away, toys sorted and put away, and house cleaned. That will last about 12 hours only because the kids are asleep now!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T14:38:00.006-05:00

Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day of Christmas. Even more than Christmas Day. There is something so exciting about Christmas Eve as the excitement and anticipation builds for Christmas Day.

When I woke up this morning, I was able to have a few moments of quiet before the rest of the house was awake. I cherished this time that I could reflect on what the birth of a Savior has meant for me personally. Amazing how my mind is quickly refocused from all of the other Christmas distractions onto a night so many years ago that has forever changed the course of my life. I wonder had I lived during the time of Christ's birth, would I have "missed" the Savior like so many did? Then I'm immediately reminded how grateful I am that I have not missed Him in the present.

Christmas provides an enormous amount of opportunities to share Christ with my children. The very obvious is simply the birth of Christ. But beyond that I have realized that even in the preparation for Christmas, my kids were able to experience sharing the love of Christ. As we were baking cookies to give to people, Jacob started a conversation that was quite interesting. He said, "Mom, you are so nice to make all of this for people." This led to a lengthy conversation on how during Christmas we can give to people in order to show and share God's love with them. This led to why we give gifts at Christmas time and sparked many conversations about sharing, giving, blessings we've received, and so on.

Jacob simply amazes me with the things he can understand at such a young age. Jacob said, "Mom, even when Jesus was in Mary's tummy, he was God up in heaven at the same time he was a baby in Mary's tummy." I couldn't help but show amazement at the comment, which led to probably more conversation than he wanted from me. And Jacob only needs to hear something once to remember it forever. I heard Steve telling him how Christmas isn't about presents, Santa, etc, but that it is about the birth of Christ. I only heard a tiny bit of what he was saying. But several days later, Jacob repeated the conversation to Zachary. Zachary said, "Yeah, your right Jacob." I don't think Zachary really got it though!

So today we started our morning like normal since Steve had to work until lunch. Once we got our day started, we listened to their Bible on cd about the first Christmas, they played the Wii while I made stuff for lunch, then we sat down to watch Polar Express, which we started as a Christmas Eve tradition last year. Steve and I love that movie even more than the kids do! When Steve got home from work, we had a yummy lunch, buffet style at Jacob's request, then went out to play in the snow.

There was something so neat about getting to play in the snow on Christmas Eve. The boys were super excited when Steve told everyone to get on their snow gear and meet him outside. As usual, Jacob and Zachary were moving at a slow pace getting everything on. Suddenly, Jacob saw Steve outside sledding by himself. Yes, he is a really big kid! This led Jacob and Zachary to finish getting geared up at record speed. During the course of sledding, Steve built a little jump for them that they had a blast doing over and over again.

After lots of snow play, we came inside and played the Wii of course! After lots of game time followed by dinner, we finally arrived at the time the boys had been so excited for all day...presents! On Christmas Eve, we let them open the presents that we bought them as well as any they have received from relatives. Watching them tear into their presents was so much fun. The sweetest moment came when it was time for the boys to open the gifts they had bought each other. Jacob had bought Zachary a Diesel train (which he had asked Santa for). Jacob was so excited for Zachary to open his gift. I could see that Jacob had that excitement that everyone gets when they have bought a gift for something that they think they will love. His eyes were so bright as he stood poised over Zachary almost holding his breath waiting for him to open it. It was very cute to see Jacob more excited to give than to receive, which we had talked alot about and they didn't seem to understand, that is until they experienced it for themselves.

After gift exchange, they couldn't get their pajamas on fast enough. They were so concerned that Santa would come before they got to bed. Jacob made a plate of cookies and a glass of milk while Zachary wrote a letter to Santa. Jacob left a note for Santa asking if Jack could stay for 3 more days :( Poor Jacob was so sad to see our little elf, Jack, go back to the North Pole.

Christmas Eve was a full and fun day filled with lots of anticipation, excitement, and reflection.

Too many pictures???

2009-12-21T14:35:00.005-05:00

I can't help myself from taking their pictures this week. They are crazy little kids that keep my days so interesting, especially now on Christmas break!

Jacob can never just smile for the camera. When the camera is out, he is doing some silly kind of pose or face. I RARELY capture his sweet smile.

Steve took this yesterday afternoon from in front of our house.

Pretty blanket of snow. The kids can't resist throwing themselves into it.

This just sums them up. I don't tell them to pose crazy. I just get out the camera and their personalities emerge. Steph, do you see why I love buying Charlie's clothes from you??? The boys are still wearing them and LOVE them!

A rare still moment captured. There is something so fitting about Zachary's very mismatched clothes that just fits his personality.

Andrew is dying to get more involved with his brothers. You can just see it in his eyes! It won't be long before my older 2 have converted my sweet baby.

But for now, he remains my sweet, sweet baby.

Video of snow play

2009-12-21T10:09:00.002-05:00

Well, now that I figured out this little trick to getting my videos on here, here is some snow play from Saturday.

Jacob is the first to sled followed by Zachary then Steve. Andrew never made it out. I figure the snow will be here long enough for him to get his chance. I doubt he will love it anyway. Although, he does like to look at it from the window.

Wii Reaction

2009-12-21T09:44:00.002-05:00

Turn your volume up as loud as you can in order to hear this....

Well, I can't convert my dvd file type to a compatible type. Soooo, I played the dvd on my computer and recorded the playback from my computer onto my still shot camera in record mode. This is the best I could do, but you will get the picture...

Zachary and Jacob were beside themselves over receiving a Wii from Grandma and Grandpa. Since I recorded off my computer, it is hard to hear. So you will probably need to turn the volume up pretty high to hear.

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa. However, it was too short. As I mentioned earlier, they were here to enjoy our giant snowfall. Saturday was a snowed in day filled with lots of eating, opening presents, and finally playing the Wii.

4 more days until Christmas!!!

Playing in the snow

2009-12-20T10:29:00.002-05:00

After shoveling the driveway twice, Steve got to play in the snow. I'm not sure who had more fun, Steve or the boys.

Finally the snow ended last night. Today the sun is out. However, it will barely get above freezing today. It was actually 0 degrees when we woke up this morning!!

Grandma and Grandpa are on their way home. We prayed for a safe trip home and hated to see them go. I'll post later about our visit with them. I so badly wanted to post the video of Zachary's reaction to receiving a Wii, but I can't get the format right to upload the video. Sorry I'm just not that technically savvy! So I will try to do my best to describe it.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2009-12-19T15:37:00.003-05:00

I can't even believe how much snow we have here! Aside from the ski slopes out west, I've never seen this much snow before. Definitely not from my own home. It is soooo incredibly beautiful to watch the snow falling. It started yesterday around 3:00 pm and hasn't stopped yet. It is now 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. I'm not kidding when I say the snow hasn't stopped. It is still falling so heavy.

Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa were just ahead of the snow. They arrived right as the snow started. I don't know how much we have, but it is well over a foot. I have seen reports for some of the local areas and they are showing 16 inches. The snow is up to my knees in some places. The pictures don't even do the snow justice. You can't really get a feel for how deep it is.

What a beautiful way to celebrate Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. We woke up to the most beautiful scenery. There is something some mesmerizing about watching the snow fall. From inside, it looks so peaceful. When you walk outside, it is so still and quiet.

More to come on Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. I just wanted to post about our snow. Grandma and Grandpa might be staying longer than they wanted to!

Christmas preparation and anticipation

2009-12-18T13:48:00.004-05:00

Jacob is the shepard on the far left. His line was "We were watching our flocks last night and an angel appeared."
An angel with a devilish smile. He was so cute in his play.

The boys are giddy over Christmas this year. Each year with them gets more and more exciting. We have spent the last week watching school plays and performances, attending Christmas parties, and doing all of our Christmas preparations at home.

Jacob loves to help with all of the preparation. He loves to help wrap presents, make cookies, shop for gifts, etc. Zachary loves to eat the cookies and unwrap the presents. Last weekend we took the kids out to shop for each other as well as for them to buy us gifts. Jacob is very, very decisive. He is a fast and efficient shopper. He went right in and knew what he planned to buy everyone. Zachary is distracted in the store and is more interested in buying gifts for others that he would enjoy. He wants to get everyone a train. Zachary also likes to go under the tree to find which gifts have his name on them. I have even found some tape lifted on some gifts. Jacob, on the other hand, loves the anticipation. He loves the surprise and the waiting.

Nannie bought them an advent house which she filled with little goodies each day. They run downstairs every morning to open the door on the house and find where Jack has landed. But with all of the fun and excitement surrounding Christmas, we have tried our hardest to continue to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. It was heartwarming to see that at both of the boys' schools, their performances centralized on Christ's birth rather than Frosty and Rudolph. As fun as all of the Santa stuff is, Christmas is really about the birth of a Savior.

Although, the boys have never experienced a white Christmas, for some reason, Zachary has come to believe that snow signals Christmas. Not sure why that is, but nonetheless, he thinks Christmas won't come until there is snow. Ironically, they are forecasting snow to begin today bringing 10-18 inches. Then more snow starting Wednesday through Friday. We are so hoping for a white Christmas!

Grandma and Grandpa will be here in an hour! We've got lots of fun stuff planned. Hope Grandma and Grandpa are prepared to build snowmen :)

Jack is here and Visit with Santa

2009-12-08T14:50:00.002-05:00

Our elf, Jack, has arrived in our home again this year. Last year we began doing the Elf on the Shelf with the kids. They named our elf Jack. If you have never heard of Elf on the Shelf, it is the cutest thing ever! You get a little elf and a book that tells the story of the Elf. Basically the elf is Santa's helper and is in your home during the day so he can report back to Santa if you have been good or bad. Every night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa. Then he flies back to our house by morning. When the boys wake up, they come flying down to see who can be the first to find Jack.

Jacob loves Jack dearly. He honestly does. He talks about Jack throughout the year and has so looked forward to his return. The first morning that Jack was discovered, Jacob almost teared up. It was really sweet. I have even caught Jacob over near Jack talking to him. The rules according to the book are that you cannot touch him or he will lose his magic. You can talk to him, but he can't talk back to you. So Jacob was telling Jack all the questions he wished Jack could answer. Here were his questions, "Why are your hands always in your lap? Why do your eyes always look in the same direction? Why are your ankles always crossed? Why does your face look like plastic?" Jacob cracks me up!

Now, Zachary doesn't have the same fondness of Jack that Jacob has. I believe this is because Zachary knows that Jack will do lots of bad reporting on Zachary, so Zachary is forced into better behavior.

After Jacob got home from school today and we had lunch, I took the boys to visit Santa at the mall. I forget that we live in a small town now! I was stressing trying to get them to the mall to beat the crowds, got there and was reminded that it isn't Atlanta anymore. It was nice, the boys got to take their time with Santa because there wasn't an hours line waiting behind us. Zachary was apprehensive at first. I had to walk him up there. Jacob went right up and began talking to Santa. I left Andrew in the stroller so the older boys could visit Santa before we took a picture with all of them. But Andrew was laughing from his stroller and trying to get up there. So I went ahead and put him up there. That is when his laughter quickly turned to wailing! Once he got his blanket and his thumb, he was fine.

Since we were already at the mall, I tried to sneak in a few quick stores and was reminded of what a great idea it would be if stores offered babysitting. They would make more money because I could have shopped a lot more if I weren't reigning in my kids the whole time. Watching me in stores with my kids must be humorous. They aren't bad and they NEVER fight. Instead, they are very silly with each other and playful and just downright crazy. I literally feel like I spend 75% of my time in the stores correcting them or getting on to them. I often notice older people smiling at the boys, which is sweet, but I often feel embarrassed because I'm sweating trying to corral them and get my shopping done. I have even overhead people say, "Oh, they are boys" as if that is why they are crazy! When I finally get them in the car, I always ask myself why I do it? It is much more peaceful when I go out in the evenings when Steve is home with the wild animals.

Off to rescue Jacob from rest time to help me begin wrapping presents. I offered up to both boys if they wanted to help me wrap presents. As was expected, Jacob was thrilled and excited to help and Zachary said, "No thank you."

Our first trip to Disney

2009-12-06T15:33:00.006-05:00

Zachary is so afraid of most rides. This pictures shows the fear on his face while we were barely spinning. Poor Jacob wanted to spin so fast and Zachary would freak out. So we gave Jacob his own cup to spin his heart out!

Sweet boys on our last night. Dinner at Grand Floridian

After a swim at the pool...

Zachary's favorite part of Disney...the playground at Animal Kingdom, go figure!

Jacob all smiles, Zachary right before lunch

Posing with Goofy at the Donald's Safari Breakfast

Posing with Donald

Jacob's very first character encounter. He didn't see Pooh walk up behind him, and jumped out of his seat when he turned around and saw this great big bear standing behind him. He was so excited! This smile is Jacob's most genuine smile. It is the same smile he had on his 5th birthday when we camped out. I rarely capture it on camera!

Boys and Daddy at Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show, before the show. At this point they were excited to see a movie. Afterwards they were terrified and a bit mad that we made them watch it!

Zach being carried to the buses after falling asleep at the park. He slept upright being carried, it was quite hilarious!

Castle was breathtaking lit up for Christmas

All of us on our first night at dinner at The Whispering Canyon

For a kid, Disney must be the ultimate vacation. The Monday following Thanksgiving we took Jacob and Zachary to Disney for the first time. We decided to leave Andrew behind since he is so young and would make the trip more challenging. But we'll go back in a few years when we can all go together!

This is a trip we have looked forward to for so long. We always wanted to wait to take our kids to Disney when they would be old enough to remember it and old enough to appreciate it and get excited about it. When they were younger, they were so thrilled with little amusement parks that we didn't want to spoil that excitement with Disney at a young age, where those attractions would no longer be appealing or exciting to them. We also wanted to really let them experience that desire of wanting something so big like Disney so that they could experience that thrilling anticipation waiting for the time to arrive. This trip has been planned for almost a year now. Up until a year ago the boys didn't even know what Disney World was. They may have heard the word tossed around, but they had no idea what it was. All they knew was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. Once we started planning this trip, we told them about Disney World. Then they began hearing their friends talk about it and their excitement started to escalate. Over the last couple of months, they were obsessed with watching clips of the parks on the computer.

Grandma and Grandpa (Steve's mom and dad) treated us to a fabulous trip to Disney. We had an amazing time. Disney was everything we imagined it would be and more. I had only been once as a child and I barely remembered it. Steve went once or twice as a child and didn't remember much of it either. So even we were excited to get to experience it again. I think the boys were pretty amazed with everything.

Both boys had a fantastic time. But Jacob, at 6, enjoyed it more than I realized he would. He never tired out, had a ton of energy, and kept up at an amazing pace. Zachary did great for being only 4. Four is the youngest we wanted to take the kids. And although Zachary did well for his age, he still had moments of meltdowns and fatigue. But we did a ton of walking, waking at early hours and staying up late. So for all that we did, he did as well as could be expected!

Jacob rode every single ride at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom! He did Space Mountain about 4 times and LOVED it. He wanted to ride it again and again. That ride even scares me. Grandma and Zachary waited outside for us while we rode that one. Jacob also rode Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom. That is a super fast roller coaster that goes backwards for part of the time. Steve, Gary, and I rode it first without Jacob. After the ride, I was really glad that Jacob didn't ride it because it was so incredibly fast. But it was so fun! I love roller coasters, but that one was scarier than I thought it would be. After we rode we asked Jacob if he wanted to give it a try, and he said yes. Steve rode with Jacob, and Gary and I rode behind them. After the ride Steve said it scared Jacob pretty bad. However, Jacob won't admit that. He said it wasn't scary and that it was pretty fun :)

I loved watching the boys eyes taking everything in, watching the wonder and excitement in their faces. The boys' experience couldn't have been better. Steve on the other hand got sicker than he has ever been in his entire life. More to come on that.

We arrived to Disney Monday afternoon around 1:00. We flew from Atlanta and met up with Grandma and Grandpa when we arrived. After having lunch we headed straight to Magic Kingdom. We really lucked out because MK had extra magic hours until 11:00 pm that night. So that was a bonus for us. We ended up staying until about 10:00. We would have stayed longer but Zachary fell asleep on Grandma while we were riding Space Mountain. Steve and Grandpa took turns carrying him to the buses. He never woke up, total dead weight. We were able to ride almost everything in Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, and the Haunted Mansion that first day. The crowd levels were great. We never had to wait for than 15 to 20 minutes and many times only waited about 5 minutes. It was great. Also, the weather was PERFECT. Temperature was in the mid 70s and just beautiful!

Tuesday was our first full day. We got up early and headed back to Magic Kingdom. We had early dinner reservations at Crystal Palace inside the park, so we decided we would stay all day and not go back to the hotel to rest. After lunch is when the trip took a nasty turn for Steve. He started to feel dizzy, severe headache, and started shivering with body chills. He actually had to leave the park and go back to the hotel and miss dinner. We stayed for dinner and the boys got to see all of their favorite Pooh characters. Jacob was so excited! He had his most genuine smile when posing with the characters. Zachary played shy with Pooh, then warmed up to them all. When we arrived back at the hotel, Steve had a high fever and was pretty well out of it.

Back to our day at MK before Steve got sick...this is really funny. We watched Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show. We thought the boys would absolutely love it. Zachary cried and Jacob hated it. It scared them! There was NOTHING scary about it. It was 3D and I guess it just freaked them out with musical instruments appearing to float in front of your face. Also there was a little spray of water which just freaked Zachary out (he hates to get wet unless he is in the pool or tub). So our boys loved the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, but they cried over a sweet little Mickey 3D show!

Wednesday morning we were going to Animal Kingdom. We had a character breakfast at the Tusker House, Donald's Safari Breakfast, at 8:00am. Steve got up and was too sick to go. He had to get back to bed. Can you imagine how miserable he felt to have to miss out on this? He had to miss all of the character encounters. But towards the end of breakfast, we got a call from him that he was going to try to come anyway. He managed to be with us the entire day. He even rode all the rides and went to dinner with us that night. In hindsight, he probably overdid it causing a relapse.

Zachary hates anything fast. Interesting facts about Jacob and Zachary....Jacob is very cautious, yet he is a risk taker when it comes to rides. He loves anything fast or scary. Zachary is not cautious in the least, yet he hates anything that moves more than 5mph! But we convinced Zachary to ride Dinosaur promising him it wouldn't be fast. Well, though it wasn't fast, it was completely terrifying!! Even to me! Steve and I had to shield their eyes and ears because they were both terrified. It was the most intense ride I've ever ridden and I did question if one of those monsters was going to actually rip me right out of my seat! So I totally understand why they were terrified. I even bought the picture of us on the ride because it captured so well all of our terror! All of us adults looked scared and Steve and I have the boys buried into us as much as possible. So after that I think we lost Zachary's trust!

Zachary's favorite part of AK was the boneyard play area...just a playground! Jacob loved the safari. Thursday we got up early to be back at MK at 8:00am. We had to wake Zach up every morning, which he just hates. But the enticement of food gets him moving. By lunch we had ridden everything that we had wanted to numerous times over the days, so we headed back to the hotel for lunch and swimming. I wish we had planned in more time for the boys to enjoy the hotel and pool. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. It was really nice and they loved the pool and arcade there. Gary and I rode the boys on these 2 seater bikes around the hotel one day too. They loved it, but our legs were killing us after one loop. We turned in our bike much earlier than we needed to! Thursday night we headed to Grand Floridian for dinner and that is when Steve started to get sick again. Steve's whole body was shivering with chills. He had to leave straight from dinner to go back to the hotel, while we all headed back to MK for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade. The boys loved the parade and shows. Gary, Linda, and I were disappointed with how Disney handled the crowds. It was a ticketed event, but people were able to sneak in anyway creating masses of crowds. So all week we saw no crowds, but that night was crazy!

That pretty well ended our Disney experience. The boys LOVED everything about it. Steve so sick he was almost delirious. He felt like he was in a fog, his body was aching, he was sweating profusely, chills, the whole 9 yards.

Friday we had to travel from Florida to Virginia. That was one of the worst days Steve and I can remember. Steve was so sick he could barely function, but we had no alternatives. After flying from Orlando to Virginia, we picked Drew up then immediately began driving to Virginia. I had to drive, obviously, while Steve slept. It was awful. We had already traveled for 8 hours when you factor in the time our travel started on the way the airport in Orlando. I was so tired and knew we still had 9 hours ahead of us. Looking at the navigation counting down the time was pure agony. At one point, the navigation showed we still had 7 hours to go and I just wanted to cry. I was so tired, Steve was so sick, we had 3 little kids cooped in a car, 2 of which had already been traveling for 10 hours. It was miserable. I prayed a lot on that ride home. I was scared driving at night and being so tired and even considered just getting a hotel room in Charlotte. But instead, I found a starbucks and got caffeinated for the remainder of the ride. We made it home at 12:45. It took us 9 hours exactly, not bad with 3 kids! I have never been so happy to see my bed! I got in bed and thanked God for getting us home safely!

So glad we drove home Friday night because we woke up Saturday morning to lots of snow. It snowed all day long! So we went from 75-30 degrees!

I'm tired writing this, so I have no idea if this captures the week. It is hard to put into words because it was a mixture of experiences and emotions! But to sum up, the boys had the most amazing time, Steve and I had an incredible time when he wasn't sick, and we are so grateful to Gary and Linda for giving our family a trip we wouldn't have been able to experience on our own.

Drew turns 1

2009-12-05T15:12:00.007-05:00

Our sweet little man turned one Friday, November 27th. One year old birthdays always make me a little sad because once they turn one, they quickly move from baby to toddler.

We left Virginia on Wednesday and arrived around 10:30pm to my sister, Amber's house. The trip down was great, boys did fantastic, and we only stopped once which was for dinner. Thursday was our family's Thanksgiving at Amber's house. The boys were so excited about seeing their cousins. They played their little hearts out. Zachary was most excited to play the Wii of course.

Amber's house is a great set up for kids. They have four wheelers, trampoline, playset, bikes, and a Wii. So the kids have a blast playing there.

Friday morning Amber and I were crazy enough to try to go to a few stores. I always ask myself why I attempt to Christmas shop on that day! Especially having to get up at 3:30 in the morning to go!

Friday evening we had Andrew's little family birthday party. Unfortunately he did not do so well over the days we were in Georgia. He cried alot, had molars coming in which caused a runny nose along with lots and lots of runny diapers, which caused the worst diaper rash I've ever seen. Sadly over those few days no one got to see the real Drew. Instead he was a fussy, clingy little guy! At his party he wouldn't really let anyone hold him. The most bizarre part of the party was the fact that he didn't dig into his cake. At all! In fact, I had to dip his fingers into it and I had to give him bites of it to get him to dig in, but he still never did. It is the first time I've ever seen a baby not dig into their cake. He wanted no part of it. My mom made an adorable Lego cake for him too!

Saturday we went to Steve's parents house to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. Then Sunday we spent the day with my dad. And our time was over that fast!

The craziest thing that happened was that my sister went hunting with my dad Sunday afternoon and shot a buck! The boys were really into watching that whole process!

We had 4 days to see our family and they flew by. We spent about 1 day with each of them and the time was gone before we knew it. That always happens. I still haven't managed a trip down where I can see our friends. My goal is to get down and see friends this spring!

My next post will be all about our Disney trip, which began the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-05T10:56:00.003-05:00

Stay tuned for many postings that will chronicle our 10 day getaway!

I have so much to post that I will be posting several times throughout the weekend assuming I can get all caught up at home!

In short, we drove to Atlanta Wednesday afternoon for Thanksgiving with our families until Sunday. Monday we left Atlanta headed for Disney with Grandma and Grandpa, amazing trip!!! After flying Orlando to Atlanta, we then drove Atlanta to VA all in one day on Friday. We had a 16 hour non stop travel experience with the kids. We are crazy, I know. But......so glad we did, because we woke up to winter wonderland here this morning.

Shots above were taken through the front and back doors. The boys are begging me to take them outside!

Home sweet home.

Video Games on the Brain

2009-11-23T14:28:00.002-05:00

Some children are wired to love video games. I see that now that I have Zachary. I am not much of a video game fan. I've never really enjoyed them much. Personally, I would rather read a book than play a video game. Plus I'm not a big fan of video games for kids because I feel it hinders their imagination and keeps them in front of a screen rather than outside playing. That being said, I have always known that video games would have a place in our home simply because it is impossible to keep them away from kids these days. They love them, and in moderation they don't pose much harm. Almost everything is geared towards tv, computer, or some electronic device. My thoughts have always been that we would use video games like we do tv, sparingly. We don't let the boys watch tv every day. They watch it every couple of days and only 30 min to an hour. So when video games enter the scene, they will fall into the same format.

Number 1 on the boys Santa wish list? You guessed it a Wii!

Jacob enjoys video game type things, but not nearly to the extent that Zachary does. Zachary would rather play a game on the phone or computer more than anything! He gets all charged up when he thinks he is about to get to play a game. The weird thing is that we don't have games, yet anytime Zachary has an opportunity to play one, you would think he plays all the time. His fingers naturally know what buttons to push. When I can't figure it out, he can. Baffling to me!

I have an iphone that I have a couple games on for the boys to play. When I am waiting for the game to load, I will always tell Zachary, "Hold on, it is loading." So Steve gave Zachary a scenario question yesterday. It was a tough one for the little guy. He really had to ponder his answer. While we were all staring at him waiting for his reply, he looked at us and said, "Hold on, I'm loading." Yes, he did say that!

Now, for the scenario question that was posed to Zachary by Steve. "Zachary, if you had 2 choices which would you choose. 1-Jacob needs your help. He is trapped under his bike and needs you to save him or 2- You can eat a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate chips and cherries." That little stinker had to "load" to come to his answer. After he had loaded, he chose the ice cream over helping his big brother out. We've got some work to do yet!

Christmas Spirit has arrived at the Robinson Home!

2009-11-20T10:22:00.004-05:00

Two years in a row now we have begun to get into the Christmas spirit before Thanksgiving has arrived. There is something not quite right about that! Thanksgiving is a special day to recognize before rushing into Christmas. However, for the 2nd year in a row, we are doing just that!

Last year I delivered Drew on Thanksgiving Day. I knew that I would not have the energy to decorate once I had a newborn and 2 other little guys to tend to. So the week before Thanksgiving, we decorated for Christmas while at the same time preparing and freezing our Thanksgiving dishes in the event I was in the hospital. In hindsight, I was thankful for my ultra (some would call crazy) organization. I was released from the hospital the morning after Thanksgiving and it was so nice to be able to have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with no hard work and then to enjoy the decorations for Christmas!

This year we are in a similar situation. The timing of family visits and a trip to Disney doesn't leave much time for all of the Christmas preparation. So yes, we did already put up our tree! And yes, we did decorate the inside of the house. I was too embarrassed to decorate outside this early. However, I noticed there are a few houses in the neighborhood that are eager beavers like we are. This weekend, much to Steve's chagrin, we will tackle the outside.

I must admit that Steve has come a long way in the development of his Christmas spirit. I used the equate him to Scrooge. He grumbled a lot about decorating and didn't care for my constant Christmas music that seems to drag on and on. The birth of our children has warmed his heart to the point he actually, though he might not admit it, enjoys some of the more laborious aspects of the season. He recognizes the excitement this creates in the children and in our home during this time. So he has taken off his scrooge hat and replaced it with a much cheerier one! You will even catch him whistling some Christmas tunes. Steve officially makes the switch to all Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving.

I function best in order and an organized home. If I can get us set up for Christmas, I can better focus on creating memories with the kids that they can hold onto. We can do all the fun things they love because I won't be running all over town finishing everything up! So, tree up, decorations almost complete, shopping practically done, we are ready to focus on the "reason for the season".

Child Prodigy???

2009-11-17T09:03:00.003-05:00

Well, probably not, but yesterday Andrew picked up a crayon for the first time. To my shock, he started holding it correctly immediately. Not only did he have a proper grip, but he took it straight to the paper and tried to write with it. At the time Steve was recording some of Andrew's other "tricks" so we were able to capture it on tape in case it was a one time occurrence.

So today Andrew, Zachary, and I were playing on the floor. I noticed Andrew saw some crayons and paper laying out. He locked on and inch wormed his way over there. He picked up the crayon like I would and began "coloring" on the paper. It is really funny to see him have an interest in crayons at only 11 1/2 months old. We were never able to give Zachary crayons as a baby. He would eat and break them. It would drive Jacob crazy because as soon as Zachary came around crayons we had to scurry to get them put away.

Andrew's other current tricks or cute things include waving bye bye, pointing to your eyes and saying "eyes", showing you he is so big, scooting on his bottom to get around or inch worming on his tummy, standing if you help him up, roaring like a lion, and copying sounds and faces.

Zachary is a speed demon on his bike now. He very quickly progressed in his riding ability. He taught himself to start off without needing a push. Within 2 days of riding, he was able to go speeding down the hill in front of our house. I just held my breath as I watched him fly past me. Now he can even turn at the bottom of the hill and pedal all the way back up. That is hard for even me to do! He LOVES riding his bike now.

Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree and a few decorations in the house. I know it is early, but it was our last opportunity until after the first week of December. And the boys so love when we have the decorations up. Jacob especially enjoys it. He and I did the Christmas tree by ourselves. Steve and Zachary don't enjoy that, but they enjoy it after we have it up and everything cleaned back up! This was the first year that Jacob was a true help to me in decorating the tree. He did a great job. He even was able to tie the ribbons onto the ornaments for me then he decorated as much as I did.

Elf Yourself

2009-11-10T20:06:00.002-05:00

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/43HOgDc3Mz5KJlkrY4WH

We just can't resist doing this each year. The boys get the biggest kick out of it and want to watch it over and over again! Andrew was hysterically laughing then quickly turned into either more laughing or sheer terror. I couldn't tell which!

Drawing on the Sweet Moments of Sickness

2009-11-10T08:56:00.004-05:00

Are there sweet moments that come along with sickness? I've discovered that there are.

When I picked Jacob up from school yesterday, he wasn't acting like himself. He was being antagonistic and cried at the drop of a hat. At one point I asked, "Jacob, what is your problem today?" I just knew that there had to be more to it than just a bad attitude, which is very out of the norm for Jacob. Bursting into tears he sobbed, "Mommy, I don't feel good. My teeth hurt and my foot hurts." When Jacob gets sick, there are 2 things you can count on, his teeth will hurt and he will cry for no reason.

In the 6 minutes it took to drive home, he broke down. When we walked in the house, he said he wanted to lay down on the couch in the basement and go to sleep. He didn't want to eat, which is odd considering all he had was cereal for breakfast. Within 5 minutes he was sound asleep in the basement where he slept for almost 2 hours. He woke just as Andrew and Zachary laid down. The timing was perfect as I was able to give Jacob 100% of my attention while keeping him away from the other little guys.

When he awoke, the dreaded happened. He began to throw up. Oh, how a child hates that. My heart breaks as I watch it because I'm so helpless. Watching Jacob I'm silently praying that God would take it from him and give it to me. In this moment I'm seeing God's love me for. When God looked at mankind his heart broke watching our sufferings. Jesus wanted to take our place on the cross because He couldn't bear to see us in our natural state, broken. I can relate to Jesus at this moment and my heart is filled with such love for Him. Later as I reflected on the day with Jacob and my appreciation for Jesus, I realized what a sweet moment it actually was. Had my day just skipped along, would I have stopped to ponder God's deep love for me? Maybe, maybe not. Or was it only because I was watching my child suffer that I was able to recognize me as God's child suffering and relate His great love for me with my great love for my son. Then and only then did I shift my focus from my life and my circumstances to God and the bigger meaning of life?

As the day progressed, Jacob only got worse. I tucked him into bed at 5:00 and he slept until about 7:30. Later I told Jacob that our evening wasn't the same without him. There was a very big missing piece of our family. Jacob's symptoms are typical of any virus or flu, fever, vomiting, fatigue, you name it. The sweetest side of Jacob has emerged through this sickness. He is very endearing to me right now. Every time I'm tending to him, he says,"Mommy, I love you so much. You would die if you knew how much I love you." My heart melts. Watching him in a most vulnerable state, wishing so badly that I could trade places with him, my heart is so full of love for him.

Something I've learned recently and am just now understanding the wisdom of it. Steve is very positive. He always looks for the good in every situation. So watching Jacob go through this makes me pause to thank God that this is the worst of what we are dealing with regarding his health right now. Looking on the bright side, keeps me from having a poor me attitude. A thankful heart develops as I begin to look at the blessings that God has brought in the midst of trying times.

During the last 24 hours, I've had very tender moments with Jacob that I would not have had. I have had the opportunity to have special prayer times with him where we can cry out to God. I've had numerous sweet moments with Jacob that honestly I wouldn't trade for anything. Finally, I've had the opportunity to point back to God for Jacob.

Jacob asked me this morning why God allowed him to get sick if we prayed that he would remain healthy. Inside I smiled as I thought, "That is the question that adults struggle with, that Christians and non-Christians alike struggle with. Do you want me to go back to when sin entered the world and changed everything?" I answered, "Jacob, that is a great question and one that I'm glad you are wondering about." I tried to explain as briefly as I could that God doesn't promise us a perfect and happy life. But what he does promise is to never leave us nor forsake us. He also promises that in all things he will turn into good. I ended by saying, "Jacob, if you had not gotten sick, would you have prayed as much as you have? Would you have spent as much time thinking about God? Sometimes it is during the hardest times for us that we actually grow the closest to God. Usually it is when we are struggling that we realize we can't get through it without Him." I shared that I have gone through many things that were very difficult at the time, but when they were over, I was able to look back and see how I grew in my relationship with Christ and how my faith had increased.

Last night Jacob had perked up considerably. He was able to join us downstairs to watch football and eat a little soup. This morning he is in and out of feeling bad. At one point he told me he wished I could have this so that he wouldn't have it. I told him I would take it in a heartbeat. As I tucked him back into bed at 8:30 am, I could barely bring myself to leave his room. His face was so sweet, he was so vulnerable. He looked at me with the sweetest eyes telling me how much he loved me, then I noticed tears slowly rolling down his face. My heart was physically aching. I pray on Jacob's behalf that God provides him comfort and love that only He can offer.

Although, it is not fun to be sick or have a sick child, there are sweet moments from this experience that I will treasure up in my heart.

Steve wins the award for Best Husband of the Year!

2009-11-08T14:25:00.002-05:00

I love my family dearly, more than I ever imagined possible. I am so grateful to be home with my kids during their young years. At the same time, they exhaust me and drain me daily. So my little shopping getaway this weekend was the perfect escape for me to be refreshed and rejuvenated. I had just enough time to relax and be renewed before heading back late Saturday night.

I went to Short Pump in Richmond, with my longtime friend, Kimberley (Blanchfield) Patterson. Kimberley and I have been friends since high school. However, I don't think we had seen each other in 6-7 years! Her family recently moved to Roanoake, which is about an hour and 45 minutes from us. Kimberley and I have so many things in common...we both have houses full of boys, we both grew up with houses full of girls, and we are very like minded about health issues. Kimberley holds a special place in my heart because she prayed for mine and Steve's salvation after attending our wedding. So I thank God that she prayed for us, because it played a huge role in our eternal salvation!

So a couple of months ago, Kimberley invited me for a weekend getaway shopping excursion. We have been counting down the days for months. We had such a wonderful time. Actually, it was everything I wanted it to be. We had so much time to catch up on each other's lives, we had meals without children, we slept in (well I did, Kimberley faithfully exercised), and we shopped all day long!

I would not have had the experience I had if Steve had not been so encouraging of me to go. He always encourages me to get out and take a break. I'm so grateful to him for that. I can't imagine not getting breaks. It is so nice to leave and know that he has everything under control. I honestly don't worry at all! He came home early Friday so I could get started on my weekend! So while I waited to meet up with Kimberley, I ran a few errands and got a head start on my Christmas shopping!

Friday morning we did have a scary start though. Steve came home from work at 9:30 am asking me to put peroxide in his ears saying he felt his body was fighting off something. I began praying immediately that God would keep his body healthy. The description of his symptoms sounded like the flu, so I was bracing myself to have to cancel my weekend! Even when he got home to relieve me he didn't feel great. But praise God, he remained healthy and ended up being fine!

Kimberley and I met up and started in on the 2 hour drive to Richmond. When we arrived, we settled in to the hotel then headed out to dinner and shopping. When the restaurant told us the wait was almost an hour, it was great to say, "Ok!" without worrying about kids melting down from hunger! We shopped while we waited then ended the evening with a long, leisurely dinner. How I loved having lengthy conversations that we were able to complete without being interrupted by sweet little voices and requests! How nice to sit through a meal without making trips to the restroom or cleaning up spills. Again, don't get me wrong, I love my family and cherish doing these things for them. But when I have a chance like I had, I really enjoy it!

Steve was tweeting throughout the night, which is how I discovered Andrew had pulled up to his knees for the first time!

Saturday morning I slept until almost 7, which is 2 hours past my normal wakeup time. I count that as sleeping in. I was just about to get up when I received a text from Steve that asked if I was still pretending to sleep :) After getting ready, I went down to breakfast then read a book while I waited on Kimberley to finish up her workout. I felt slightly guilty for not joining her, but that lasted but a brief moment.

Saturday we shopped until we dropped, literally! My legs hurt today! We shopped at Short Pump until 5:00 then headed to my favorite...Trader Joe's. We finished up there around 6:00 then headed to a 2nd mall until about 8:30 when we wrapped it up and headed home. The clerk at Trader Joe's thought I was crazy. I had 2 gigantic buggies full of food. My kids LOVE Trader Joe's. They love their cereals and snacks. I love their prices, customer service, smallness, and their natural/organic philosophies and products.

At one point on Saturday I was on the phone with Steve when Andrew began crawling for the first time. That just figures! 2 milestones on my first time away from that child! Sure enough today he is inch worming his way around. It is so stinking cute! He is most motivated for Steve's blackberry.

On my way home Saturday night I called Steve and that is when I really realized he deserved the Best Husband and Daddy Award! I thought that the weekend was going so smoothly for them, but he finally told me that he had a major catastrophe Saturday morning. Steve had decided (against my advice) to take all 3 kids to the soccer fields by himself. I've done it and it is hard, so I warned him against this. It is especially hard when you have to get 2 kids ready for an 8:00 am game while handling a baby! But Steve did it anyway! Evidently Andrew was horrible there. It was cold and he didn't want a blanket, so he just screamed the whole time. Then Jacob started melting down saying his feet were freezing and he didn't want to play in his game (extremely out of character). So here Steve is with a screaming baby in his arms, a 4 year old on a field by himself, and a 6 year old who is crying and won't play. They got home and Steve continued to have issues with Jacob. I think he was just missing me :) Here is why Steve deserves the award, he never told me about all of this until I was on my way home. He didn't want to ruin my trip. He wanted me to go and fully enjoy my time away rather than worrying about what was going on at home. And I did! I'm grateful for his good judgement. I would have been so worried about them! As the day progressed, things went better and he said they were awesome, no problems, and they had a good time. I think Steve was exhausted by the end of the night. The other reason Steve deserves the award is because he cleaned the house before I came home! It was just as clean as when I left. What a bonus!

Our boys LOVE hotels. There were so jealous that I was staying in a hotel. So the first thing they asked me this morning was to tell them all about the hotel. I told them about the great big bed, the delicious breakfast, and the heated pool with a fire pit. They said, "No fair!" When they saw my Trader Joe's bags, it was like Christmas morning. They were tearing into them, excitedly pulling out their favorite things. Zachary was thanking me and Jacob was telling me he loved me. Andrew was watching with a huge smile. We let Steve sleep in. In our house, that isn't very late, he joined us by about 7:30 I think!

Wonderfully refreshed, I am ready to handle the challenges of motherhood that await me for at least the next 6 months!

No training wheels for Zach!

2009-11-03T15:02:00.004-05:00

Drew watching Zach's new accomplishment

He is doing it!

And he is off...

Zachary is officially riding with no training wheels! He is so incredibly excited and proud of himself.

Jacob was about Zachary's age, a little past 4, when he decided he wanted to take his training wheels off. Jacob decided he was ready when he learned that his best friend, Max, could ride with no training wheels. Once he realized that it was possible, there was no stopping him. He begged us for weeks to take them off before we finally said ok! Within 20 minutes he could ride a bike. He was extremely determined.

Knowing that Jacob could ride a bike at 4, made me realize that Zachary would be able to as well. However, Zachary had not yet come to this conclusion. So today while Jacob was in school and Andrew was napping, I asked Zachary if he would like me to take his training wheels off and teach him to ride a bike. He looked apprehensive at first, but I explained that it was just like his 2 wheel scooter.

So I got out a wrench and took them off. I was actually quite proud of myself for doing that. Normally, I would have asked Steve to do it without ever attempting it myself. It felt good to use a tool and accomplish what I had set out to do!

I got Zachary on the bike, I held the seat, and I told him to pedal as fast as he could. I explained that the faster you go, the easier it is to balance. I kept relating to his scooter. He said, "Yeah, when I go slow on my 2 wheel scooter, it tips, but when I go fast, I can balance." Our first run down the driveway, I realized he was able to balance quite well. So on the return trip, I let go without him knowing for about 10 seconds. When I stopped him, I told him I let go and he was doing it all by himself. He screamed with excitement. His eyes were sparkling and his smile could not have been bigger. He said, "I did it!!! I did it!!!"

So, I said, "Yes, you did it, and now you can do it longer all by yourself." So on this run, I gave him a push off and we went the entire length of the driveway all by himself. I was as shocked as he was. He jumped off his bike exclaiming, "I can't wait to show Andrew. I can't wait to show Jacob. I have to call Daddy! They will all be so proud of me."

It was time to get Jacob from school and I needed to get Andrew up from his nap. I knew that Zachary wanted to show Andrew. Although Andrew didn't understand the excitement or what was going on, I played along anyway. We ran up to Drew's room, and with much excitement, began telling him all about it. He looked totally confused by our exuberance. He was even more confused when we took him straight outside and plopped him down so he could watch Zachary ride.

When we picked Jacob up, Zachary told him his good news. Jacob's jaw dropped and he told Zachary he was so proud of him. It was really sweet to see Jacob showing Zachary excitement for him.

When we got home, Zachary took his first fall and went in the house crying. When he came back outside, Jacob said, "Zachary, that will happen a lot when you are learning. I still fall sometimes." A few minutes later, I heard a loud crash. I turned around to see Jacob had fallen off his bike. I realized he did it intentionally just to make Zachary feel better. He got up and said, "See Zachary, even I fall sometimes and I've been riding with no training wheels for a long time."

Nothing warms my heart more than to see virtues like these played out in my kids. I stop to thank God that they love each other and share in each others triumphs of life. And I pray they will always cheer each other on!

My Birthday Weekend

2009-11-02T20:17:00.002-05:00

My birthday was Sunday. However, on Thursday I received an early birthday surprise when I arrived home from a dentist appt. I walked in the door and Jacob said I had a birthday surprise and I had 3 guesses. After my 3 guesses, he led me down to the basement to receive my surprise. When I opened my eyes, I found my parents there! They had come up for the weekend to surprise me for my birthday.

We had a great visit. The boys were ecstatic to have surprise visitors. Thankfully, I had cleaned on Wednesday :) Nannie and Paw-Paw got to see the boys' last soccer practices and games. The rest of the weekend, we just hung around the house and played.

Saturday we took Jacob and Zachary to see Nemo on Ice. We had planned to take Andrew as well. But when Nannie and Paw Paw showed up, we let them stay home with Andrew. Steve and I felt like we were on a date with just having the older 2. There were no diapers, diaper bags, and when we needed to get out of the car, it didn't take 5 minutes to get all the gear out! Nemo was great. The boys really enjoyed it! After stopping for pizza, we headed back home from Charlottesville, an hour away. When we got home, we let the boys stay up to watch some college football before calling it a night!

Sunday was my birthday. Since it was also daylight savings time, that would have been a great start to my birthday getting an extra hour of sleep. However, Andrew had other plans. No one told him we got an extra hour of sleep. I was in his room getting him up, when to my shock Steve arrived to start the day with me at the crack of dawn. He took over with Drew so I could get ready for church. The rest of the day, Steve went out of his way to be even more helpful than he already is. When we got home from church, he told me to go upstairs and go back to sleep...and I did! I laid Drew down, Steve took the other little guys downstairs to play, and I curled up in bed and went to sleep. It was so incredibly nice. I very rarely take naps! It was an even better nap than normal because we just bought these new micro fleece sheets from Costco that make you want to stay in bed! Later in the afternoon, I escaped for a little while to do some early Christmas shopping for the kids. It was a nice, relaxing birthday!

I'm so excited...I am going for a night away with a friend for some shopping, relaxing, and dining without children!! Steve will have all 3 by himself for the first time overnight. I'm sure they will have a great time!

Glad Steve is home!

2009-10-26T15:14:00.003-04:00

Some brotherly competition

Is Drew starting to look like Steve now too? Will I never have one that looks like me??

Steve was away last week to Atlanta for some training classes for work. I had to have a positive mindset going into the long week since I knew I had no relief coming for many days! The boys were awesome though. They gave me no problems and it was a relatively easy week...except we missed Steve of course. By the end of the week, I was really ready for Steve to resume his wrestling with the boys because they were beginning to tackle me from behind when I wasn't expecting it. They had lots of pent up energy that needed to be worked out!

Saturday Steve played in a fundraising golf tournament for Jacob's school. So I had to take the boys by myself to their soccer games. What made this difficult was that the games were spaced an hour and a half apart and right in the middle of what should have been Andrew's morning nap. And it was raining. I looked ridiculous on the sidelines in the pouring down rain. Jacob was miserable, but he is a silent miserable. He just deals with stuff that is thrown his way, thankfully. But he was freezing and wet. Andrew was shielded in the stroller with this rainguard contraption and he finally fell asleep. When they finally called the game, Zachary started crying because he hates to be wet unless he is in the tub or a pool! I'm walking off the field loaded down with equipment and 3 drenched rats! We were so glad to get home and dried off. At that point I thought there was no way I could go back for Jacob's game. Thankfully, they cancelled his game! But I do feel bad for him because we have had 3 rained out weekends in a row!

Over the weekend Andrew started clapping and saying Yea while he is clapping. Today he tried to make a "so excited" face. But he still isn't crawling!! He is 11 months old tomorrow...so close to a year. Jacob and Zachary play with him constantly and bring him whatever he screams for. It is no wonder the baby has no motivation to move. They love to serve him and feel like helpers.

We are going to Disney next month with Grandma and Grandpa and the boys are incredibly excited. They have posted a countdown on the fridge and love to talk about! I can't wait to see their faces when we get there. Right now, they love to get on the computer to watch video clips of all the attractions. This is the most excited I've ever seen them for anything.

I do wonder how Zachary will ride anything since he is scared of all rides. At the Hess's Greenhouse yesterday, he squealed and begged me to stop the tire swing where Steve was pushing him. He was terrified!

Jacob is also getting excited about Christmas already. He loves seeing the decorations. He said he is more excited for Christmas than he has ever been before :) I hope he has many more years of being this excited!

We've got a fun week for the last week of October. Jacob has a field trip this week and his fall performance for school is tomorrow. Saturday we are taking the boys to see Nemo on Ice.

Happy Monday!

The reason behind the urgency to vaccinate for swine flu

2009-10-21T14:38:00.002-04:00

Money...plain and simple. This vaccine has already generated billions! Yes, billions of dollars! The media coverage is driving me up the wall. Every time I turn on the news or open up the Internet, there is another "fear mongering" story urging everyone to run out and get vaccinated.

The urgency is increasing because for the first time, the public is balking. Everyone is not running out to get vaccinated because enough information was dispersed early on causing people to question the safety of this vaccine.

Just as in every area, the media is very slanted in their coverage. They don't ask key questions. Of the deaths reported for the flu, how many were vaccinated or given Tamiflu? Just a thought...if I were a reporter, I would want to know that! Also, what are the health conditions of those that have died? Often there are serious underlying medical conditions before coming down with the flu. Of those that died, did they even do a flu test to see if the virus was present?

There is an enormous amount of misinformation being reported right now. It is mind boggling how the facts and figures can be so misconstrued.

Even the CDC, who I don't really trust in their figures because of their ties to the vaccine industry, states that the swine flu has not mutated and is fairly mild. Talking with people who have had it, they feel it is no different than the regular flu.

Click on the Mercola blog link on the left side of the page to read his Special Swine Flu Update published today. He is responding to the 60 minutes segment aired last Sunday. I was curious because we watched that while waiting for Amazing Race to start. One very interesting thing I found was this:

http://www.mercola.com/article/swine-flu/Swine-Flu-Update-2.htm

"Interestingly, the 60 minutes segment acknowledges that many people born before 1950 have antibodies to the new H1N1 influenza and are naturally protected.

WAKE UP AMERICA, this is before ANY vaccine was available!

If influenza vaccines are so effective, then why don't they work to protect people that have been getting their flu shots all these years?

(There is a new Canadian study that suggests those who have gotten seasonal influenza vaccines in the past may be at greater risk for getting H1N1 swine flu. This information reinforces NVIC's call for a comparison of the long term health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children).

The answer is, of course, that vaccines do not offer long term immunity. Natural immunity is what you gain when you recover from influenza and natural immunity is what is protecting older Americans, who have recovered from exposure to H1N1 strains of influenza in the past.

What is unknown is whether the massive amount of vaccine exposure in the US population has critically weakened people's ability to mount an effective immune response to novel infections like H1N1.

It was discouraging to see 60 Minutes end their segment on H1N1 influenza vaccine with an encouragement to go to their website to find out where to get a swine flu vaccination..."

Another key point from his article...

"Nearly all of them, just like the CDC and mainstream media, use the statistic that 36,000 people die from the influenza every year. I actually wrote an article about this fallacy more than five years ago.
Interestingly that number has remained static as if carved into stone all these years.
However, the truth is that less than 1,000 people actually died from type A or type B influenza. The other 35,000 died from pneumonia. This is actually clearly listed on the CDC's own website, yet virtually everyone ignores this fact.

Dr. David Rosenthal, Director of Harvard University's Health Services, brings further clarity to this confusion.
Most of these so-called influenza deaths are in fact bacterial pneumonias -- not even viral pneumonias -- and secondary infections. Furthermore, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Academy shows that many of these deaths are a result of pneumonias acquired by patients taking stomach acid suppressing drugs.
So, for example, if we are to take the combined figure of influenza and pneumonia deaths during the flu season of 2001, and add a bit of spin to the figures, we are left believing that 62,034 people died from influenza.
The actual figures are 61,777 died from pneumonia and only 257 from influenza.
Even more amazing, in those 257 cases, only 18 were lab confirmed as positive for the influenza virus!
In my opinion, there's a vast difference between 257 deaths and 36,000 deaths from influenza..
A separate study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics for seasonal influenza seasons between 1979 and 2002 reveals that the range of annual influenza deaths were between 257 and 3,006, for an average of 1,348 influenza deaths per year.1
Again, nowhere near the 36,000 mortality mark that has been etched into stone by those who are advocating annual flu shots.
Although the loss of even a single life is tragic, I don't think anyone would look at these numbers and say that a mortality rate of less than 1,350 is cause to label influenza a "deadly disease" that requires mandatory influenza vaccination."

"The British Journal concluded that the only possible rationale for the CDC's complete disregard for scientific fact, even in face of independent research to discredit its statistics, is a public relations effort between the CDC and the vaccine manufacturer's campaigns to increase flu vaccination."

I could cut and paste everything, so I will stop. If you have any interest at all, I would encourage you to read this article. In my past experience with information that Dr. Mercola puts out, it is usually very accurate and way ahead of the curve in getting out.

Zachary's version of Jacob's song

2009-10-21T14:30:00.002-04:00

Jacob has a song stuck in his mind that he has been going around singing for days. I'm sure you've heard it...I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot in the artillery, but I'm in the Lord's army.

Well, when Jacob sings it, he accidentally leaves out the "ride in the cavalry" part, so what he sings is, "I may never march in the infantry, shoot in the artillery, but I'm in the Lord's army, yes sir" So he just sings and sings while he is working on a little art project this afternoon. Meanwhile, Zachary was building with mega blocks and I noticed he was singing the same tune, but the words were different. Here is Zachary's version, "I may never march to the enemy, just to receive your celery, but I'm in the Lord's army, yes sir!" Oh dear, no wonder he often doesn't follow my instructions correctly! He must hear something different than I'm saying!!

How to Keep Your Family Healthy This Winter

2009-10-20T16:02:00.006-04:00

Seems the sick season is hitting earlier this year than normal. We seem to be surrounded by sickness at every turn these days. So without staying holed up in our houses all winter, how do we prepare our bodies to fight this season? Here are a few strategies that our family has found helpful. Many seem very simple and common sense!

1. Wash hands often with NON antibacterial soaps. I try to use only soaps that are not antibacterial if I can help it.

2. Eat lots of fruit. I wish I could say we eat lots of veggies, but we don't. However, if you like veggies, then eat up! Eat as much raw fruits and veggies as possible. If you don't like your veggies raw, just steam or cook them as little as possible.

3. Avoid processed foods. This includes not only takeout and fast foods, but also all of the convenience type foods offered at the grocery store. I.E the dinner kits that you just throw in the oven or mix a few things on the stove. You are better off buying the fresh ingredients and putting the meal together yourself. This might take a little longer, but your body will thank you for it!

4. Avoid sugar (including artificial sweeteners). Sugar attacks the immune system. This is even true for orange juice. I used to LOVE orange juice and go through cartons a week of it. Then I realized how much sugar it contained and how sugar attacks the immune system. You are better off eating an orange and drinking a glass of water.

5. Drink lots and lots of water. A good rule of thumb is to take your body weight and divide it by 2. This is how many ounces of water your body needs a day. (Another side note, it is best to drink filtered water and non bottled water). I could do an entire post on the benefits of water. But it is crucial to your health. I have only been a water drinker for 2 years. I wonder how my body survived the first 30 years!

6. Peroxide your ears at least once a week. Often times germs enter through the ear. If you use peroxide in your ears for 5 minutes on each side you are effectively killing the germs that wanted to invade your body. Also do this at the first sign of sickness.

7. Take a high quality vitamin supplement. My family's favorite vitamins come from Mercola. I have looked into many different brands of vitamins out there (including Arbonne, which I rep!) and I haven't found a vitamin that I thought was better than Mercolas. Don't get me wrong, Arbonne's are great, but Mercola's were the best for us. I also use the children's vitamins from Mercola. My rule of thumb on vitamins is that if you can buy them at Target or the grocery store, then you are throwing your money away on them. They are usually highly processed and contain ingredients you would not want in your body, thus doing more harm than good.

8. Make sure to get lots of sun exposure and/or supplement with Vit D3. I know many families who are supplementing with Vit D and having their blood tested every 3 months to ensure healthy levels. Vit D is critical. Go to http://www.mercola.com/ and search Vit D to get lots of great info.

9. Probiotics! Steve stared on probiotics to combat acid reflux then we realized the immune system benefits!

10. One of our favorites is from Arbonne. It is a triple shield echinachea supplement called Get Well Soon. We take this at the very first sign of any kind of cold, flu, or virus and it knocks it out immediately. We love Arbonne's; however, there are many good brands of echinachea supplements at the health food store as well. For our kids we use a children's echinachea. If they get the sniffles or a cough, I give them this and nothing further usually develops.

11. This one is not for all families, but our family grinds our grain and makes fresh bread, muffins, pancakes, etc. Regular store bought bread is stripped of most nutrients. This is even true of the breads that claim to be enriched. When you mill the grain just prior to baking, you maintain the vital nutrients. Since starting this a couple of years ago, we have seen drastic improvement in our health.

12. Stay away from hospitals and doctors offices if you can help it! I cancelled Jacob's 6 year well check because I didn't want to take 3 well kids into a sick doctors office where they would be exposed to everything. Even when my kids do get sick, I very rarely visit the doctor's office. Only if it is really, really bad. There are so many things I can do at home to make them feel better without exposing them to other illnesses circulating or contaminating other people!

13. Lastly get plenty of rest as well as avoiding or handling stress appropriately.

These are the things that have helped our family in the past. Hope they help yours!

Zachary's Special Day

2009-10-16T10:41:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was Zachary's "Special Day" at school. That is the day he is assigned to bring in snacks and he gets to get up in front of the class for circle time and lead the class in everything for the morning. He was really, really excited about his special day too!

Jacob was so bummed that he couldn't be there to watch Zachary. But Drew and I went, and what a treat it was. It is so cute to see them in another setting like that. Zachary LOVES his school. He loves everything about it. He is just a very social child and loves being around people, so this environment is right up his alley. When I pick him up, his face is beaming with pride and he loves to let me see him saying bye to all of his friends. At home, he really enjoys telling us about his friends. It is the first time that he really has his own friends, rather than friends by default because of his big brother.

Leading his circle time, Zachary proudly stood in front of the class with a big smile pasted on his face. I was very impressed at all the learning concepts that are incorporated into their circle time when they start their day. Amazing to me how the teachers have such control over all the children!

When Zachary came home, you could tell how proud he was. He kept saying, "Everyone loved my snacks. They just loved them." Then as a family we huddled around the tiny screen of the video camera and all watched Zachary at school. Zachary said, "My school is so awesome."

Now that Jacob is in school, he is starting to think I might not be one of the smartest people he knows! There is a cat in our neighborhood that looks just like a raccoon. Twice I've seen this cat and thought it was a raccoon. The second time I saw it, I told Jacob I thought it was a raccoon until I went outside to check it out. Jacob looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mom, you should know it would not be a raccoon. They are nocturnal." Well, of course I should have known that along with lots of other things!!

What's new with Drew?

2009-10-13T14:36:00.002-04:00

Swinging at Zachary's school

Andrew "ground and pounding" Zachary (at Zachary's request)

Jacob truly, truly, truly adores his baby brother.

Our little Drew is 10 1/2 months now. He is still very laid back and STILL not crawling :) I say that with a smile, but am so ready for him to move. He has entered a major stage of frustration. He so badly wants to move and is trying his best to figure it out. He used to be very quiet and has now become very vocal with his displeasure. He loves to shriek so everyone knows that he is mad he can't move!

Although he can't move yet, he has mastered a few new tricks. He can now wave, which is so cute because he does it backwards at himself. He usually waves both hands at once and watches himself do it. He followed his first command the other day when I told him to wave bye- bye and he did it. Last week Steve was backing out of the driveway and Andrew said what I believe was Bye Bye Da-Da and started waving.

He loves to drop things and will say "Uh-oh". And he now can throw a baseball and loves it. I guess watching his brothers play ball makes him ready to join in the fun. I usually give him a ball or something when the older boys and I are playing outside. Today he didn't want to chew it, which was strange. Then I realized he was trying to engage me in a game of throwing or rolling the ball. Once he saw that I understood, his little body was jumping out of his skin with excitement.

He talks alot. I can't understand any of it, but he has a lot to say! I wonder if he will talk as much as Zachary does? Can our house handle that many talkers? Interestingly, Zachary was talking about one of Jacob's friends and saying he was quiet. I had to explain to him that not everyone loves to talk as much as he does!

So, although, Drew is not crawling yet, he is mastering other tricks! However, mommy is ready for him to master crawling. I've never been a mom that loves the stage where they just sit and don't move. I love the movement. I love the curiosity and the figuring everything out. He is close though, so stay tuned! After lunch Jacob and I were playing foosball in the living room so we put Andrew in the middle of the floor. For the first time, he managed to move off the rug halfway across the living room. This is a major step. I remember when Jacob first started crawling, he did that for about a week before he started booking it! Maybe Andrew will follow suit!

On another note, it appears the cold is moving in tonight. I don't know if I'm prepared quite this early. Rain and high in the 40s for the rest of the week. You can imagine we are soaking up today...sunshine and 67!

Jacob turns 6!

2009-10-11T14:36:00.004-04:00

We have celebrated birthdays this year like never before. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it is because the boys are getting older and more excited about it. It is so easy to have fun with it now. Or maybe it is because we moved last year right before their birthdays so we didn't get to have a party for them with friends, so we are making it up now. Nevertheless, we celebrated according to their wishes, and now we are birthday partied out!!

Jacob's actual birthday was Saturday. However, Thursday kicked off his birthday weekend. Friday was a day off from school, so Thursday I took cupcakes into Jacob's class and stayed for some of his day. His sweet teacher really treats the birthday children special on their special day. He had balloons on his desk and throughout the morning was given special recognition for his birthday. His classmates sang Happy Birthday to him in Latin and all had fun eating cupcakes outside on a beautiful fall day.

Jacob is not a very expressive child. He is very mellow and even keeled for the most part. His excitement isn't bursting out of him. But there is a look that he gets on his face when I can see the excitement inside of him. And being in his class that day, I could see how much he was enjoying the special attention he was receiving.

Jacob being silly waiting on his snack

Battling with a friend on the playground

Jacob enjoying his birthday serenade and group hug!

Thursday night Steve told Jacob he had a surprise for him on Friday. Steve took the day off of work to take Jacob golfing. This would be Jacob's first time playing an entire 18 holes. He told him before he went to bed what the surprise was and Jacob was ecstatic. So Friday morning they set off for the day. Steve said Jacob did great and I know he had fun because he told me all about it through the weekend.

We have some sweet pictures of Jacob golfing that I will post if I can get them off our camera. We are still having technical problems in this house. One computer doesn't work at all right now. And one camera shuts down my other computer when it is connected.

Saturday morning Jacob woke up with a big smile on his face. He learned his lesson last year not to stay awake all night the night before his birthday. He woke up well rested and ready to celebrate. We had so much to do Saturday. Zachary's soccer game was at 8:00am. We barely finished that before they rained out the games the remainder of the day. That actually relieved me because it freed me up to start setting up for his Marine party.

The party started at 2:00 and Jacob was just dying to get started. He dressed up in his camo soldier outfit that Nannie and Paw Paw got him for his birthday. When all the kids arrived, we enlisted them and issued their helmets and dog tags then they were off assembling glider planes. While they were flying their planes, a car pulled up with 3 real Marines. Steve had called the recruiting office and one of the Marines said he might be able to come by. We had not told Jacob because we weren't sure if they would be able to. About 2 hours before the party, he called Steve and said they were going to stop by.

The kids had a lot of fun with the Marines. They did lots of physical training activities with them and even brought along a pull up bar for the kids to do. After PT, he moved them down to an obstacle course then led them into a couple rounds of tug of war. We concluded the games with tank, tank, grenade (duck, duck, goose). When Jacob was planning out his party, his requests were decorations, a camo cake, and playing games. However, I think his emotions caught up with him and got the best of him right before the obstacle course. Jacob cannot handle being the center of attention (which is why I was shocked to see him at school loving the attention). When all eyes are on Jacob, he gets visibly uncomfortable. Right before the obstacle course, I made the mistake of putting the attention on him by telling him he could go first since he was the birthday boy. That set him off to tears and he just watched his friends play the remainder of the games. Jacob has always been very sensitive. Often times his emotions just overcome him. As he has gotten older, he has learned to handle the emotions better.

The Marines wrapped up their games and gave the kids lots of goodies then we were off to the pinata, cake, and gifts. While waiting for all the kids to be picked up, they just ran off some more energy. All in all it was a great party. Jacob had a ton of fun and the weather turned out great. But Steve and I were exhausted! This will be our last big party for a long, long time! Next year maybe we can suggest to them to combine their parties at an off site location! But it is all worth it when you listen to your kids replay their favorite parts of the day and their favorite memories.

Tank tank grenade

Jacob working hard like a real marine
Getting ready for more pull ups!

Jacob flying his plane and watching the kids gather around the marines

Jacob requested a camo cake. He also requested that I not make it and that I buy it instead (he has seen my many failed attempts at baking cakes...I just can't do it!)

So HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY, our sweet Jacob! We hope it was all you had hoped it would be!!

Who Knew??

2009-10-06T11:20:00.004-04:00

Who knew we had a pumpkin patch in our neighborhood! A couple of weeks ago we saw a sign in the neighborhood for a pumpkin patch. I thought it had to be just a small little plot of land with a few pumpkins. So we went to check it out today. We were so pleasantly surprised!

After Jacob got home from school, we had lunch then decided we would take a walk to the top of the neighborhood and follow the signs to the pumpkin patch. The boys love an adventure, so they were super excited to go exploring.

It was quite a hike for little legs. As you can imagine, it is pretty hilly here, so the walk was a bit tough for my little guys. But they were troopers and did awesome. We arrived at the pumpkin patch and couldn't believe this was tucked away in our neighborhood. We felt like we were secluded on a great big farm. We were greeted by chickens upon arrival. Jacob about jumped out of his skin when a rooster crowed.

The set up was so neat. They had a stand set up where you could purchase all different sizes of pumpkins and gourds. Or you could go out into the pumpkin patch and pick your own. They also raise honey bees there. So we got to see a real honeycomb and read all about their bees and honey making. We explored the patch and played around then set out to pick out the perfect pumpkins.

Playing on the hay...

Private Jacob

Zachary picked the smallest pumpkin. He calls it "his special pumpkin". He tried to give it to Andrew, but I got it away in time.

Jacob sitting on one of many pumpkins

Zachary posing with his sweet smile

Jacob wanted to know how many of these we had enough money for. I think he wanted them all!

This was taken of the neighborhood from the pumpkin stand

Drew didn't miss out on the fun. He LOVED the pumpkins.

Does Andrew's smile look as mischievous as his brothers' smiles??

Can I eat the pumpkins?

It was a really neat experience. We love October and all the pumpkin fun that it brings. The boys keep asking when we get to go back to Hess's Greenhouse, which was one of our first fall outings here last year. After 2 school pumpkin trips, plus a family pumpkin outing, we will be pumpkined out! But they love it!

Jacob turns 6 on Saturday! He is so excited. I was looking back at last year when he turned 5 and remembering his sweet excitement at turning another year older. He is equally excited to turn 6! He asked me for a piece of hard candy the other day and I said no like I always do. His response was, "But, mom, I'm almost 6!" So I said, "Ok, when you turn 6, you can have hard candy." The other thing he is looking forward to is having a Coke. He has never had one and I promised him he could when he turned 6. Hopefully, he won't like it too much :)

Jacob is really excited for his birthday party. He is having an army party. His requests: play games, do a craft, have confetti and balloons, and a pinata. So he is counting down the days. Saturday will be a full day with 2 soccer games and a birthday party!

Weather here is fantastic. Temperatures vary a good deal, but have been between the 60s and low 70s. It is pretty cool in the mornings in the upper 40s and low 50s. This is my favorite weather. Now having been through an entire year here, I don't dread the winter anymore. I have seen the full change of season and how incredibly long and different our spring, summer, and fall are. So winter is pretty short after all. Remind me of that when I'm freezing in January and February!

My black cloud has lifted

2009-10-01T10:24:00.002-04:00

Since our DC trip, I've had this black cloud of bad luck following me! Very random, annoying, and strange things occurring. Some things were pretty minor, then some were enough to drive me up the wall. Thankfully, I think the cloud left me Tuesday night.

Monday was one of those days you just want to crawl back into bed and pull up the covers. I was dreading the day because I knew that on my to-do list was the awful task of calling Dell about my laptop. For the last week or so, my laptop would just lock up, so I basically wasn't able to use it. Then my desktop was acting strange. So I finally had to bite the bullet and call tech support. Anyone who has made this call knows exactly why I dreaded it so much.

I called Dell and described my issues. He matter of factly told me I had a virus and only had 2 options. You guessed it, they both included buying a tech support package even though my computer is still under warranty. After doing this they transferred me, the guy said I didn't have a virus and was sold something I didn't need. He transferred me back to get my money refunded. Long story short, the first 2.5 hours on the phone were dealing with that alone! Meanwhile, I have 3 little kids that need me. Anyone who has kids and tries to have a phone conversation can relate to what I was feeling. I keep my phone calls under 10 minutes if I can control it!

I was transferred 7 times with Dell before anyone could help me. I started on the phone at 2:00pm. Steve got home from work and took charge of kids and dinner while I sat on the phone trying not to cry. At the end of a 5 hour phone session (yes 5 hours), I was in tears. There was 1 thing important to me on my laptop, Andrew's 1 year digital scrapbook, which was on my hard drive. I had a hard time understanding the Dell tech's English, so I thought he was telling me to back up everything immediately b/c he was going to reset my computer to factory settings. Well, that is not what he was saying. He was actually telling me to do that later in case that is what he had to do. But during this confusion, I was trying to back up that program and I don't know what happened but my book was sent into never never land. At this point, I just about lost it. I was on the phone for 5 hours, I lost the only thing I cared about on this computer, I ignored my kids all afternoon, and I felt miserable. I get off the phone crying. Steve feels awful for me. My kids don't understand what is going on. Then the wind slams the door on Zachary's fingers...HARD. I thought it broke his hand. He was hysterical. After a few minutes, would you believe that little stinker was in the yard playing football with Steve and Jacob! Steve did that on purpose b/c he knew it would make him want to come outside. He is one tough little guy. He always amazes me in that regard!

Oh, by the way, my computer still wasn't fixed. This is just an example of the black cloud. There were numerous things like this occurring back to back over a 3 day period. So we prayed!

Tuesday night our prayers were answered. Someone from Dell emailed me this awesome set of instructions to debug my computer and it worked! Then someone from Blurb emailed me great instructions in how to find and restore my album, and it worked! From that point on everything was rosy again :) But what a week we had at the start.

It was a great reminder to me that I'm not in control of anything. And this week I had so many things happening that were totally out of my control. I was exhausted trying to fix everything then was reminded that God was waiting for me to call out to Him. So I did, and what a lesson it was. Everything is so easy for Him! He spoke the world into existence...He can easily handle my problems! He wants my love and He wants to see me put my faith in Him into action. I was reminded to cast my cares on Him because He cares for me. When I did that and recognized that I couldn't do all that I was trying so hard to do, it was amazing to see Him swoop in and take care of it all.

DC Day Trip

2009-09-29T09:55:00.003-04:00

We decided we were going to surprise the boys Saturday with a day trip to the great city of DC. We were really excited about the "adventure". Prior to Saturday we were trying to give them hints. Of course, they had no clue. But we told them we were going to be like Little Einsteins and go on an adventure.

Saturday morning ended up raining out the soccer games. This actually made us excited because we were able to get an earlier start. It is only a 2 hour trip but we wanted as much time as possible!

Let me start by saying that our trip could have been alot better. We learned from our mistakes on this trip, so next time should go much smoother!

Mistake #1-Taking the Metro in rather than driving in and parking ourselves. The Metro ended up being jam packed. We had a 30 minute trip on the train. Let me try to paint the picture...elbow to elbow crowded to begin with, then imagine our clan hopping on with 3 little kids, double stroller, HUGE backpack, etc. You could tell how irritated people were with our gigantic stroller. Then I had to try to give Drew a bottle while being jammed in this train. After his bottle I was just grossed out at watching the boys touching every thing in that train that everyone else has touced. Top that with them chewing on their hands and digging in their eyes.

So we get off the train and are excited about the day ahead. We walk out into what should be a beautiful site of the lawn in the Mall and were stunned when we saw the lawn taken over with huge white tents. They were having some National Book Club or something like that. There were people EVERYWHERE. It was extremely uncomfortably crowded. We quickly escaped into the Natural History Museum to get away from the hordes of people. We zoomed through the museum b/c of the crowds and then had to eat inside the museum at their little cafe. Mistake #2- It cost a fortune to eat in there. We spent $26 for 3 tiny slices of pizza and 2 drinks. Steve had to give up most of his slice to Zachary b/c 1/2 a slice for Z Man just doesn't cut it. So we all were hungry when we left! On another note, Jacob loved this museum. He loves animals, so this was a great treat for him.

Oh yeah, my camera battery died after 2 pictures. Mistake #3-not checking my battery before we left. We also brought our double stroller instead of the single. We haven't used the double in well over a year. Mistake #4-not putting air in the tires before we left.

Next we visited the American History Museum. This was Zachary's favorite. He loved seeing all the trains. We pretty much flew through there then decided we were just ready to go home. But since we were already there, we decided we would walk to the White House. So we are pushing a stroller with 1/2 deflated tires at the point when the older guys little legs were starting to ache. So they were jumping in with their 40 pounds making the trek even more difficult. We get to the White House, snap a couple shots with my phone camera and then try to find the Metro. At this point, I really wanted my car to be there!

We make it to the Metro station and I'm scared b/c some guy is smarting off to us for no reason and we had to walk right next to him. Then we hop on an already packed train. This time we had folded up the stroller, but we all had to sit apart . At one point I didn't see Zachary's shoes anymore and thought he had jumped off at a stop. He hadn't, but we realized we needed closer supervision of him!

Once we got back to our car, I closed my eyes and slept! Poor Steve, driving by himself in the rain with no co-pilot to keep him awake. And just like is typical of me and Steve, I am thinking of all the negatives of the day and Steve is seeing all the bright spots. He said, "It could have been worse, it could have poured down rain on us." He listed other variables that could have made the experience less enjoyable. The bright spots were that we got to spend a day together, Drew was awesome and easy. The boys had a good time and we spent hardly any money on seeing some really neat things. AND we learned what we need to do differently for the next trip!

Steve playing it up

2009-09-21T20:57:00.002-04:00

Steve is one of the easiest to please people I've ever known. Nothing much ruffles his feathers, and he doesn't ask for much. This is especially true regarding meals in our house. If I ever do have time to make him something for breakfast in the morning, he is extremely grateful and appreciative. Most mornings, poor guy leaves for work grabbing an apple and granola bar.

Dinners are a different story, USUALLY. It is a big deal for me that my family sits down to have a meal almost every night. Steve, again, doesn't require much. He would be happy with pb&j every night. The rest of us are a little harder to please. So most nights, I try my best to make meals that we all like. There is one meal that Steve has never been crazy about...stuffed shells. Every time we have it, I can tell by his plate that he wasn't crazy about it. I made this dish a couple of months ago and doubled and froze a batch. So for dinner tonight I had pulled the stuffed shells out of the freezer and we were going to have that with salad and garlic bread.

When I told Steve that is what we were having, he kind of turned up his nose and made a couple of comments about not wanting much of it. So when I dished up the plates, he said, "You only need to give me 1 or 2 shells at most." I found that funny since these are not super sized shells. Drew ate 1 shell. So Steve wanted the same portion as our 9 month old!

Jacob is like his daddy. He rarely complains about food, but you can tell from his plate what he thought of it. We sat down to start eating and I got a bite ready for Andrew and started blowing the fork. Steve said, "You don't need to blow it off. It is plenty cooled down." So Steve's first bite of a meal he didn't like was ice cold. He was forcing a happy face for the kids while he was trying his best to eat any of his meal. He finally stopped eating and said he felt sick. I think he was playing it up a bit, but he was saying he felt like he needed to throw up. He was asking if his face was flushed. Then he had to get away from the smell of it!

As we finished dinner, I had to laugh when I looked in the living room and saw Steve snuggled up on the couch "recovering". As the night wore on, he began to feel better. I think he faked it all along. His "sickness" didn't stop him from wrestling the boys for an hour! However, right before the kids went to bed, Steve was holding Andrew. Andrew burped right in Steve's face and Steve almost lost it.

Needless to say, stuffed shells will not be served in our house again. I think Drew and I were the only ones who enjoyed it!

Weekly update

2009-09-17T13:45:00.003-04:00

We are so fortunate to have a mom on Zachary's team that is a photographer and is willing to take the time to take pictures at the game and send them to us. I've put a few of Zachary from last week's game.

The weather is changing and it is so nice! I love it! The leaves are just starting to turn and temperature is down. Today it is pretty cool and cloudy. Something about this weather makes me want to stay in my pajamas and eat a bowl of chili.

Evidently Zachary was learning about astronauts at school this week because he came home talking about them. He said to Jacob, "Astronauts just fly into outer space." Jacob said, "Well, actually Zachary they don't really fly. There is no gravity in space so it just looks like they are flying." Mister smarty pants! I told Jacob that last year sometime and he still remembered it! It is amazing to hear all that Jacob is learning in school. It seeps out of him slowly when he is ready. I have taken Steve's approach of not asking questions and letting Jacob open up when he is ready just by being available. So far it seems to be working! Jacob has taught me to count to 10 in Latin as well as several Latin songs and has told me who the first 4 presidents were and about when the White House was completed. I'm embarrassed to say that I did not know the order of the first 4 presidents, with the exception of George Washington!!! And Jacob doesn't understand why I don't know the Latin he is teaching me. Hopefully, he won't get a big head anytime soon and already start thinking he is smarter than his parents :)

When Jacob gets home from school he sometimes has an enormous amount of energy. After repeatedly telling him to chill out, I ended up telling him to get a head start on his rest time. He was so upset and said, "Mommy, you are acting like a mommy I've never met before." I had to suppress my smile. It was so funny, because I wasn't even upset with him. I simply told him to get upstairs!

Drew is dying to crawl. His body is out of control rocking and wiggling. Seriously, he looks as though he is going to burst out of his body. So far, no crawl.

Yesterday was mine and Steve's 9 year anniversary! What a fast 9 years. However, we have been together for 19 years. I have known Steve over half of my life! Yesterday I was telling Jacob it was our anniversary and what that meant. I said, "I love your daddy even more now than I did when I married him." Jacob said, "That is awesome. One day I hope I love my wife more than you love daddy." I told him how I pray now for the wife he will have one day and how he will love her and she will love him. And Jacob interrupted and said, " And of course, lots of children." Jacob loves the idea of a big family. He thinks we have a small family and that we need many more children!

My friend, Rita, brought Jacob home from school yesterday and said that Jacob went to get in the car and said, "Hey where am I going to sit?" when he noticed the booster was pink and purple. Madeleine happily took that seat and gave Jacob the plush, black seat!

I'm happy to report that Zachary has been awesome this week. Prayers are still working on him! He has such a happy heart this week. On the way home from school yesterday he told me that he is trying very hard to be nice and obey everything. He has given me numerous examples of how he did the right thing as school and when he does kind things for people. At least I can see he is thinking about his actions!

This week I got out a book I haven't looked at in a long time, Power of a Praying Parent. I love that book. It just helps to guide my prayer time for my children. I love the way she breaks down all the areas to pray for your kids. This morning I was reminded to pray specifically for ways to direct my children to Christ. I asked God for the opportunities and to open my eyes to see God's work. Lately I have felt the need to pray about recognizing God's work. If I were to slow down in my day, I would be shocked to see all that God did for me each day. The boys and I were having lunch and Jacob looked down at his plate and looked very sad. He said, "Mommy, I have to tell you something that I'm very sad about." Of course, I saw this as a great opportunity to remind him that he can tell us anything, anytime, no matter what. He went on to confessing that at soccer practice 2 weeks ago he asked me for a piece of gum and I said yes. Evidently, he had already taken a piece without asking me and I didn't know it. So he ended up with 2 pieces. So he said, "Will you forgive me?" Tears welled up in my eyes and I quietly thanked God for this moment as well as what He did to Jacob's heart and spirit. I told him that I did forgive him and that there is nothing in this world that God wouldn't forgive him for either and that nothing he could ever do would change our love for him either. I told him that what he had just done is confessed his sin, which is what God wants us to do, confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. I asked him how his heart felt when he was carrying around that secret and he responded, "Not good." Then I asked him how his heart felt now that he confessed it. He said, "Very good." Jacob felt liberated after letting go of that secret. He felt freed, he felt forgiven, and he felt loved. That is exactly what God offers us. How often do we walk around with unconfessed sin? Unconfessed sin leads to guilt, which pushes us further away from God. He doesn't want us to walk around feeling shamed and guilty. His son died so we could be free from that! Jacob was a reminder to me today to confess my sins to God and allow Him to forgive me and to love on me just like I was able to love on my son.

Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa

2009-09-14T16:08:00.003-04:00

Grandma and Grandpa were here for the weekend so we could celebrate both Jacob and Zachary's birthdays. With the exception of Zachary's behavior, we had a great visit. They are keeping the kids for us next year when we go on our 10 year anniversary trip. We are hoping they don't back out after this last weekend!!!

They arrived Thursday afternoon in time for the boys' soccer practices. So within 10 minutes of arrival, they were thrust into witnessing Zachary's first string of tantrums. Thursday night ended up being consumed with dealing with Zachary and soccer practices.

Friday I was able volunteer to help out in Jacob's class for the day. Gary took Zachary to school while Linda stayed with Andrew, and Jacob and I went to school together. It was a great opportunity for me to do this while they were here to keep Andrew for me. I had a blast in Jacob's class. I fell in love even more with his school after being there for the day! They have so much fun that it makes me want to do kindergarten all over again. I'm amazed at the teacher's creativity with the kids. They are learning an amazing amount of stuff but they are doing it in such a way that they are having a ton of fun and don't even realize they are learning!

After school, Grandma and Grandpa took the older 2 to their favorite for lunch, Chick-fil-A. Friday night we hung around the house and got the kids to bed early since we had such early soccer games. Saturday morning we had games starting at 8:00. Again, besides the tantrums, the games went well. The boys had fun and played great! Saturday afternoon the boys had a birthday party then we went to Red Lobster to celebrate their birthdays. Grandma and Grandpa got them a soccer goal, clothes and money. They LOVE their goal. They have played with it non-stop since Grandpa assembled it.

Sunday we said our goodbyes :( Jacob is getting better with his goodbyes. He used to cry so hard when people left. When we got home from church we went up to Shenandoah National Park on a "bear hunt". We didn't see any, but it was a beautiful stroll anyway!

Zachary's weekend tantrums

2009-09-12T21:28:00.005-04:00

It seems as though we have moved back to the terrible twos again with Zachary. For some reason he was just AWFUL last weekend. In his defense, he has had a birthday party, school starting, soccer practice and games, and 2 grandparent visits all in 7 days!! That is a lot for a 4 year old to handle and process.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived Thursday afternoon. They met us over at soccer practice. Zachary did something I never in a million years would have imagined him doing. He totally freaked out at practiced and refused to play. Well, that was fine. What wasn't fine was the temper tantrum that ensued. There is no way I can really convey the extent of his tantrum that night and the ones to follow. Let's just say, I had to take him and Drew home while everyone else stayed for Jacob's practice. We hoped that he would sleep it off. I put him to bed at 6:15 for the night!!

So Saturday morning we had to wake up the boys again. I feel so bad waking them up. They have always been early risers. But school is wearing them out! I have to wake them up everyday. Our first soccer game was at 8:00 am Saturday morning. So, again, I had to wake them up. Zachary doesn't do well under those circumstances. Let's just say that by the time we arrived at the game, we were all emotionally drained from dealing with Zachary. Long story short, Zachary FINALLY decided he would play in the game. And it is a good thing since he was 1 of 3 players that morning!

It is weird, Zachary had to be restrained from soccer fields when he was 18 months old. He has ALWAYS wanted to be on the field. We don't know what happened Thursday night at practice, but a switch was flipped and he was behaving like a child who was being forced by his parents to play a sport. And I would say, fine don't play, and he would scream, "But I want to play." I would reply, "No one is stopping you." He would answer, "I don't want to play." Bottom line, he was not himself for a couple of days. I felt helpless in how to handle him. Everything we tried seemed to backfire.

But on a happy note, he ended up deciding to play in the game and did awesome! What a rough morning it was. He was a royal pill and pulling a total control game. We still don't know what made him decide to play, but when he ran out there, he was back to his normal self for a time.

The rest of the weekend, he had moments of extreme defiance and disobedience. He has always been stubborn and strong-willed. But this was to an extent we had never seen before. One would think our first response would have been to just stop and pray. Sadly that is not what we did. I wish we had. However, I had 2 sweet friends who did promise to pray for him, which reminded me that is exactly how this should be handled.

I'm happy to report that this Monday morning, Zachary woke up with the sweetest smile on his face. He was giggly and happy with his sweet disposition back. As the day progressed I was shocked to see how sweet spirited he continued to be. He was compliant, thoughtful, generous, and obedient.

I saw one of my friends today that prayed for him, and when she asked how he was, I realized she had prayed and I was immediately taken by God's faithfulness. This morning during my quiet time, I prayed for Zachary and the heart issues we saw displayed over the weekend. As I was praying, I came across a verse that I have read 1000 times the one that says Ask anything in my name and it will be given to you. I claimed that verse as I was praying for God to grab a hold of Zachary's heart. At the end of my quiet time I asked God to help me to see Him in the ordinary today. I wanted to see and experience His work that I usually don't recognize. How often is God doing something and it just passes by me? I wanted to see it, recognize it, and give Him the glory. Well, when my friend asked me how Zachary was today, it got me thinking. I realized that God in a very clear way showed me what He can do to a heart and a spirit. He showed me that I have no control, but He has ultimate control if I allow Him.

So today I do praise God for the change I saw in Zachary. I know it was none of my parenting that caused any kind of change. If anything, God undid my lack of good parenting in handling Zachary! I saw God being faithful and true to His Word. I saw how when I confess to God that I need Him and offer Him complete control, that is when He can truly get in and do what I so desperately want Him to do.

I thank God that I have Him during my parenting years. My children don't belong to me, they belong to God. He has loaned them to me for this time and I pray that I don't forget that!

Zach's first day of Pre-K

2009-09-10T09:48:00.003-04:00

After patiently waiting for school to start for Zachary, he finally got his turn. He was so excited for his big day! I woke the boys up a few minutes before 7:00 to start getting ready, and Zachary got right up and got busy, which is unusual for him!

I was so proud of him for being so brave. I knew he was excited and ready. However, you never know how the first day will actually go. While we were waiting to go into his class, he looked slightly apprehensive, but he never said anything to indicate he actually was. The teacher told him to find his name to check in, put his backpack in his cubby, and grab a book to read while waiting for class to start. He did exactly that. In fact, he grabbed a book, took a seat on the reading chair and said, "Bye, Mommy." I was shocked he was so ready for me to leave. So I took my cue from him, and gave him a quick kiss, told him I loved him, and scurried out the door.

When I arrived back at the school to pick him up, he was all smiles. The kids came walking in a line out the door and I saw his eyes scanning the moms looking for me. When he saw me, his face broke out in a huge smile and he ran and gave me a hug. He said he had so much fun at school.

Since we have time to kill between getting Zach and Jacob, we played on the playground for a little while. I could see though that he was wearing down fast. He looked tired and hungry, and he is like me when he gets like that! So we loaded up to get Jacob. When we got in the car, he said, "I wish I could be a baby again." When I asked why, he said, "So I don't have to do school." To myself I was thinking, "You begged for this for months! And you said you loved it!" I just replied, "Well, I'm glad you are a big boy and not a baby anymore."

I asked what his favorite part of school was. Like most kids would say, his answer was snacks and playground. He was beyond exhausted. So was Jacob for that matter. When the car was loaded with everyone, I could just see how tired they were. And that is only from just a few hours! They were tired, hungry, and cranky. Poor Drew was too, but he isn't as loud as his older brothers. Zachary actually told Jacob to leave him alone and said, "I'm tired and hungry, leave me alone!" At least he knows why he is a grumpster.

After lunch, I said they all needed rest. So we headed upstairs. Normally, Zachary would want to listen to books on cd or read books. Not yesterday! He asked me to get his Thomas sleeping bag out and tuck him into bed. He wanted blinds closed and fan on. He was in need of serious sleep! Then Jacob, who has been "resting" downstairs, went into my room with a few toys and books, but I noticed it was very quiet upstairs. He was passed out cold on my bed. Jacob and Zachary slept for 3 hours yesterday! Andrew and I finally got tired of waiting on them and we woke them up. They didn't even have a hard time going to sleep last night either. They were ready by 7:30!

So we'll see how long it takes Zachary to get adjusted to his routine. His class seems really fun and he has lots of new faces to make friends with. I'm glad he finally has his own stuff now with soccer and school.

Swine flu vaccines almost ready...

2009-09-09T09:37:00.003-04:00

We all knew it wouldn't be long before a swine flu vaccine was created. Before we know it there will be vaccines for every ailment known to man. We are referred to as the vaccination nation by some countries! The thing that kills me with this swine flu vaccine is that the swine flu is no different from the regular flu. For most people if you get sick, you will spend 5-7 days in bed. Now they are going to introduce a whole new spectrum of issues once this vaccine is out. I know I would not be one to have something injected into me that has just been put on the market.

I'm not opposed to medicine as some might think. I believe there is a time and place for medicine, shots, antibiotics, etc. However, I am opposed to a multi billion dollar industry that is jeopardizing the health and normal development of millions of children. Also, I do allow limited immunizations for my children. I use a "user-friendly" vaccine schedule that takes into account their growth and development as well as what they would likely be exposed to or what they would likely come out of fine if they did contract the sickness.

When I first began looking into vaccines it was to look at the autism link to vaccines. However, I was shocked when I realized that autism is only 1 of numerous conditions being linked to vaccines. In addition, there are medical conditions that are occurring later in life being linked to vaccines.

Did you realize that most of the safety testing is only done on vaccines AFTER they are released? It occurs once problems begin occurring! Until then, how can they test them? On animals? There are only a few formal studies required before they can release a vaccine to the public.

Have you ever wondered about the ingredients in the vaccines and what is going into your body? The swine flu vaccine has some frightening ingredients. To name a few, mercury, squalene, which is linked to lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and it contains animal cancer cells. Why would it be a good idea to inject animal cancer cells in our bodies to protect us from a flu virus that will cause in most people tolerable sickness for a week???

This is a great article on the swine flu vaccine. He goes on to tell which swine flu vaccine has cultured cells from the African green monkey. From the article "He states that the Baxter swine flu vaccine, called Celvapan, uses cultured cells from the African green monkey, which has previously been implicated as having transmitted a number of vaccine-contaminating viruses, including the HIV virus.
Likewise, Johannes Löwer, president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, believes the side effects of the vaccine can be far worse than the actual swine flu virus, which typically causes only mild symptoms, requiring just a few days in bed.
As you may already know, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) consistently claim the seasonal flu kills about 36,000 Americans each year. After investigating that figure, it has been found to be a gross exaggeration based on flawed data compilation, but still, the swine flu has claimed FAR fewer lives than the seasonal flu in any given year, and no draconian measures have ever been taken to curtail the seasonal flu. "

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/08/Another-Shocking-Warning-About-Swine-Flu-Vaccine.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/01/Swine-Flu-Shot-Linked-to-Killer-Nerve-Disease.aspx

I guess that is another thing that is a bit crazy to me is the fact that we vaccinate against the flu when there are so few death cases of the flu and for the most part the flu causes mild symptoms. How many people are killed in car accidents each year? Are they encouraging us to stop driving cars?

Just look at what happened when they introduced the rota virus vaccine. Here is an article to catch you up to speed http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/270480/the_fdas_warning_about_the_rotavirus_pg2.html?cat=71

Shockingly, the FDA actually issued a warning about this vaccine. In most cases, it is concerned parents who are trying to get the word out.

I feel so passionate about vaccines for a different reason than most. I have not had a negative reaction to vaccines in my children, praise God. However, I know many people who have, which led me to begin doing my own research. I was tired of being bullied at the dr office into injecting numerous shots into my kids and not even knowing what they were getting. After one visit, I left and realized that one of my boys had 5 shots in one day and I didn't even know what the diseases were they were "protecting" them from. I also realized it did no good to ask my dr for his or her opinion. I had to get my own answers and make my own decision for my children. So yes, my kids may get chicken pox or the flu, but I pray that the immune system that God designed in their bodies will function the way He created it to.

I have posted many times about my vaccine research. If you type in vaccine in the search box on the left side of the blog it will pull up all vaccine related articles and posts I've posted.

Careful, get me on my soap box, and you might not get me off :)

Labor Day with Nannie and Paw-Paw

2009-09-08T14:56:00.005-04:00

Nannie and Paw-Paw (my mom and stepdad) arrived Thursday afternoon to stay through Labor Day. They were able to see the boys' soccer practices as well as seeing Jacob off to school on Friday.

Mom was a huge help to me during Zachary's party. She basically took care of Andrew the entire time. I mentioned in the earlier post that she made his birthday cake. The cakes turned out adorable and were delicious. This was definitely one of the highlights for Zachary. He and Jacob both think it is so cool that she could make a pirate ship to eat!

In addition to Nannie making his cakes, she made his birthday special by making him a special pirate scrapbook. It was so cute. She actually wrote a pirate story about Zachary and used pictures of our family for the storybook. Very creative and cute and he LOVES it. They also gave him a 2 wheel scooter that lights up. He freaked out when he got that. He loves now that he doesn't have to share Jacob's scooter. The final gift was $10. Poor little guy thinks that now he has enough money to buy a Wii! That is what he wants right now more than anything! In April he played one at Amber's house for the first time and fell in love!

The weekend was a lot of fun. It was nice to have them here to celebrate Zach's birthday. The rest of the weekend we relaxed as much as we could!

Tomorrow is Zach's first day of Pre-K. He is so incredibly excited! Thursday Grandma and Grandpa (Steve's parents) arrive!

Happy 4th Birthday Zachary!

2009-09-07T21:21:00.004-04:00

Birthdays are a big deal to Zachary. He loves to celebrate and has been excited about his birthday for some time now. He still remembers celebrating his 3rd birthday last year. The big day was Saturday the 5th.

Zachary woke up with a big smile on his face realizing he was now 4 years old. Steve went to Panera and got a big box of bagels to kickstart the day long celebration. My parents had arrived on Thursday so we had them here with us for the weekend. More on that fun on a later post!

Zachary's excitement was contagious! He had been waiting for this day for several weeks now and it was finally here. Zachary has napped every day voluntarily for the last 3 months, but Saturday he was too excited to sleep. I was hoping he would hold out for the party which was at 2.

He had chosen to have a Treasure Hunt birthday party. When I asked Zachary what he wanted for his party, his top pick was a pinata and a cake. He is a simple boy! So in planning the party he came up with his list of friends he wanted to invite and what all he wanted to do. I think when it was all said and done, his party was exactly like he wanted it to be.

When his friends arrived, they all decorated treasure boxes. It was cute to see how creative they got in decorating their boxes. After their boxes were complete, we started the treasure hunt. Steve and I had hidden secret treasures to fill their treasure boxes and clues around the yard. It was so fun to watch the kids trying to figure out the clues. They did MUCH better than I thought they would! After they found all the clues and the final treasure, we moved on to the slip and slide. The kids had a blast playing on that for awhile then we moved them onto a water balloon fight. I think they had the most fun throwing water balloons at each other. This was Jacob's favorite part of the party! Once everyone was completely soaked we broke out the pinata. Of course, Zachary went first and he broke the stick on his 2nd swing. Finally towards the end of the line, the pinata was busted and the kids were like wild animals trying to get to the candy.

While the kids had snacks and drinks, mom and I worked on getting the cake and ice cream out. Mom made an amazing pirate ship cake! Zachary was ecstatic over it and thought it was so cool! He and Jacob couldn't believe she could make something like that. For her it was easy...I would have NEVER been able to do it! So I was very thankful she volunteered to do the cake! And we concluded the party with Zachary opening his gifts...a definite highlight of the day for him!

The day was lots and lots of fun! Zachary had a blast, which is what it is all about. He got to celebrate with his friends and Nannie and Paw-Paw! Hard to believe that he is 4 already. Time is going faster and faster as they get older. He is so happy to be 4! He thinks he is such a big kid now!

Funny things my boys say

2009-09-03T14:20:00.004-04:00

Does it seem that I write more about Zachary than any of the other boys? If so, it is only because he talks about 4 times as much as Jacob, and Andrew isn't doing too much yet! Jacob is very reserved and quiet for the most part, while Zachary is very lively and loud. When it is just me and Zachary in the mornings, I think he talks for about 4 hours straight. I actually feel tired by lunch from listening so much. It is payback. My dad used to always make comments when I was little about how much I talked. He said I talked their ears off. Zachary loves to talk, and Jacob loves to listen!

Zachary has been very affectionate towards me for a couple of months now. He still loves to give me hugs and kisses and wants me to hold him and cuddle with him. Jacob will let me hug and kiss him in private and even then acts as though it isn't "cool" to do. He can like it or not, but I won't stop doing it! Today we were going to Target and Zachary said, "Mom, do you know why I give you kisses all the time?" I said, "Because you love me." He said, "No, it is so I won't get in trouble." He has always been an incredibly honest child!

Shortly after we moved here, we started seeing some progress in Zachary's behavior. That is, instead of him ALWAYS biting or pushing a child, we were seeing times of kindness on his part. From as early as we can remember, he had a "mean face" and would for no reason choose to be mean. It was in his nature unfortunately. This is something we have prayed about for many years to see a kindhearted heart emerge. Over the last year, he has drastically changed! He very rarely acts ugly on purpose now. So today on the way home from getting Jacob at school, I told Zachary that I was really proud of him for how kind I've noticed him being towards one of his friends. I gave him specific examples of what I had noticed. Zachary's primary love language is words of affirmation, so this means a great deal to him. Jacob piped in from the backseat, "Yeah, Zachary is turning into a nice boy isn't he? Zachary used to always be mean to kids and say ugly things. Now, he is a pretty nice kid." Zachary said, "Yeah, that's because I'm getting big now."

Not 2 minutes later, Jacob was talking about some friends of ours who used to have a dog. He was talking about their dog and I informed him that several months ago their dog had died. Bless his heart, he started to cry. I had no idea it would make him so sad. He said he was sad because he knew they loved their dog. I honestly believe Jacob's heart hurts when he hears of others hurting. I remember when he was not even a year old and he was in the nursery at church, the workers made a comment to us that he always cried when another baby cried.

My mom and Bruce, aka Nannie and Paw-Paw, will be arriving shortly to stay through Labor Day. Zachary is very excited they will be here for his party. Both my sister and mom are very talented at making cakes. That gene did not pass down to me. So Zach has really lucked out the last 2 years with his birthday cake. Last year Amber made him an awesome Thomas the Train cake and this year mom is making him a pirate ship cake. Their cakes look better than bakery cakes! And Zachary gets sooo excited about his cakes! Sadly for Jacob, I have had to make his cake last year and will have to this year. He has requested a camo birthday cake. And when I mentioned to him that I would try my best to make one, he said, "Mom, can you just buy one instead of making it." Even Jacob sees the difference in my creativity and talent compared to my mom and sister!

Off now to try to control the boys excitement as they wait out this last hour until they arrive.

The last few days

2009-09-01T13:00:00.004-04:00

Just as Steve predicted, after having to wake the boys to get Jacob to school on time most days last week, the 2 older guys were up at 6:21 Saturday morning. Of course, Drew slept until 7:30. We knew that would happen. Jacob came downstairs just as I sat down with my coffee and Bible. I have to really pray about my attitude at times like that and view it as a great opportunity to have a quiet time with God AND my children and to model to them how to pray and spend time with God. My instinct is to get frustrated at the intrusion. Then I feel a tug at my heart that I know is God saying, "Remember your job is to train your children in areas regarding Me." So, I looked up and smiled at Jacob and asked him to join me. About 2 minutes later I discovered why he was up so early. Poor kid thought it was a school day. When I corrected him on his days of the week, his eyes welled up with tears. What a blessing that he loves school so much he almost cried at the fact it was the weekend! I will remind him of this when he is in high school and begging not to go.

For the rest of us, the weekend seemed to fly by. Steve worked all day on Saturday. The boys and I did the grocery store run and hung around just playing mostly. That evening I has Supper Club with some ladies. Sunday we were able to all get to church together since last week Zachary was sick. Steve took the boys to play golf Sunday afternoon. They absolutely love to go play with Steve. According to Steve they do everything he tells them to do. Steve said that Zachary hit his ball onto the green and that he absolutely freaked out he was so excited.

Andrew's latest is that he wants to move his body so badly and just can't do it. So he just bounces and gyrates his body. It is hilarious to watch. If we put him on his butt on the hardwood floor, he scoots backwards simply by bouncing around uncontrollably. At least he moves though!

Zachary was funny this morning. We were reading his Bible about King Ahab, who was very evil. Zachary was staring at the picture and said, "Mommy, is he bad?" I said, "Yes, the Bible describes him as a very bad man who did bad things." Nodding with obvious understanding, he said, "Did he sneak candy?" As I suppressed my laughter, I answered, "Well, maybe he snuck candy. But I think he did much worse than that too." In Zachary's mind, sneaking (aka lying in our house) is about the worst thing he could imagine!

Zachary has officially become interested in Thomas the train again. He is not making a big deal about it and neither are we. He went from this time last year being obsessed with Thomas to literally losing all interest in a day last January. The other day I went in his room and he had fallen asleep while surrounded by Thomas books, cds and covered in his Thomas sleeping bag. This morning, he spent all morning building tracks and playing trains. I love to see this interest back in him. It was always so sweet to watch him play with his trains.

Zachary turns 4 on Saturday. I cannot believe he is almost 4. I feel like I just had him! He is soooo excited about his birthday!

The weather here right now is my all time favorite weather. Cool temps, blue skies, gentle breezes, and no humidity! We turned off our air Sunday morning and have filled the house with fresh air. It feels and smells like fall in the house and I love it! If I could have the windows opened year round, I would. I just love the smell of fresh air in the house. Just to let you know how cool it was yesterday, I only had 1 window open downstairs and the boys were shivering and asking me to close the window! I was trying to get it really cool so that as the day warmed up the house would stay nice. When I saw their legs were purple, I closed some windows! On the way to school this morning, my car temperature read 57 degrees. Now, it is just beautiful out. On days like this, it is hard to get any of us inside!

I fell in love with Virginia during the fall last year. I had never seen such beautiful weather and scenery (well, except for Hawaii). Winter was a bit hard for me. I hate to be cold. But everyone told me that the spring is so incredible, you quickly forget about the winter. And they were right. So spring came and I fell in even more love with this place. Summer came and it couldn't have been milder. I never complained about heat, which is odd for me. Steve says I'm very temperature sensitive. I like to be just right :) So here we are again at the end of summer transitioning to fall and I'm reminded of what amazing weather we get to experience here. Something about it makes me want to eat candy corn!

Happy Friday!

2009-08-28T12:54:00.003-04:00

Energy levels at a peak, boys reunited, ready for the weekend!

Favorite pastime, wrestling

2nd day of school walking in with Madeliene, who waited in her car until Jacob arrived so they could walk in together.

Andrew with his friend up the street, who just moved this week :( He wasn't sure about sharing his toys. They kept taking things back from each other.

Everyone loves Friday, and my boys are no different. Something is different in the air on Fridays.

We are so grateful for Jacob's successful first week of school. I can't imagine the week going better than it did. Thank you for everyone who prayed for us. I had so many sweet, sweet friends email me that they were praying for Jacob and for me. I can honestly say we felt the prayers and clearly saw the outcome of them!

Kids amaze me. They waste no time in making friends and they are quickly best buds! Jacob loves his new friends and tells me all kinds of cute stories about things they have done and said throughout the week.

As the week wore on, I could see Zachary missing Jacob more and more. In fact, this morning the mail lady commented to me that Zachary looks like a lost puppy without his brother. She said, "I've never seen him without his brother before and he just looks lost." In a way he is, but in a way he is enjoying some time with just me and by himself. He actually pulled out his Thomas trains that have been put away and has gotten back into them again. See when Jacob is around, they don't really play with toys. They run, jump, wrestle, etc. Since I do little of that with Zachary, he has gone back to some of his favorite toys from another time.

Zachary went to play in the basement yesterday morning while I did some housework and Andrew slept. With so much excitement, he came flying upstairs telling me I had to get downstairs fast. He was so proud to show me he had built his own track for his trains. Like the proudest little monkey he said, "That is just my imagination coming out."

When we got Jacob home from school today, they could hardly wait to get to wrestling. I have gotten good at pretending I don't see what is going on. If I were to watch what they were doing, I would constantly be telling them to stop or be careful. Since boys will be boys, I now turn my back and pretend I don't know they are on the brink of bodily harm. The other day I would have sworn that Jacob was really hurting Zachary. So I asked Zachary if he was ok and his reply was, "Yes, I love it. We are having fun." So, I just let them do their thing. They will do it anyway. I can either annoy them by always telling them to be careful. Or I can let them be boys. Steve is training me.

My munchkins love to countdown to things. Right now Jacob is counting down how many days until he is in 1st grade and how many days until we go to the beach again. Zachary is counting down how many days until his birthday. He LOVES his birthday and is so excited it is next Saturday! What is he most excited about? The pinata!

Soccer practice started this week for Zachary's team. Me and the other 2 boys stayed in the car b/c it was raining. But Steve said Zachary did great and had a lot of fun! We left his practice and went to a back to school picnic at Redeemer. They had fun running around with Jacob's new friends.

The next several weeks are going to be pretty busy. We have family coming the next 2 weekends and soccer is starting up. And this is the time of year we all begin our birthday celebrations. Steve is excited for fall and football season!

Jacob's Open House and First Day of Kindergarten

2009-08-25T10:21:00.005-04:00

What an emotional 2 days...well, for me anyway. Pure excitement was running through Jacob's blood the last 2 days. Excitement, anticipation, sadness, on and on were the emotions running through me.

Yesterday we had an open house in Jacob's class. That provided a great opportunity to him to talk to his teacher, see where he was sitting, and get acclimated. Excitement ramped up. He set up his pencil box, put his name on a tree in their class, and just took it all in. When we got in the car, he said, "Mommy, I wish I could live in my class."

I took the boys to chick fil a to "eat inside" and play on the playground. This is a big treat b/c it is just easier for me to bring food home. But they love going in. And you know what, that is the BEST place to eat with little kids. They always bring my food to me so I can get the kids settled and come around refilling our drinks. Not to mention, it is just cleaner than other fast food.

At one point during the day yesterday Jacob said, "I can't wait to be in first grade." At another time, he said, "I don't want to be 6 anymore, just 7." He has always rushed to the next milestone, but now he is trying to skip them!

Finally, the day arrived. I woke at my normal time and snuck in some time alone with God thanking Him for giving us this day with Jacob and praying for all that he will be experiencing. God granted me a sweet surprise by allowing Andrew to sleep until 7:00! Jacob woke earlier than normal at 6:30 so it was great to have 30 minutes with him while no one else was up. He got dressed and ate. I proceeded to brush his hair 3 times and snapped some pictures.

We waited until the last minute to wake up grumpster Zach. As a family we rode to school. You have to laugh at what a big deal you make of the first day of kindergarten, but you just can't help it. Steve instructed me to hold it together, so I proceeded to slip on my big 'ol sunglasses. As we were driving to the school, I tried my best not to think so I wouldn't cry. When we pulled up, Jacob jumped out of the car and was ready to go.

Steve is videoing as we are walking up the path to the school and singing a little song. Jacob said, "Dad, please stop." When we walked in the door, I swallowed harder than I've ever swallowed in my life. It felt is if I had swallowed a watermelon, but I was determined to not shed a tear in front of Jacob.

We entered his room, and his little girlfriend, Madeleine, was already there. Huge smiles took over their faces as they greeted each other. We had a minute to snap a quick picture then headed out. Jacob looked so proud and so excited. My friend, Rita, ended up being a great distraction for me as we left the building. In fact, I was able to hold it together all the way home only because Steve was there too. Once we got home, I had a quick cry so Zachary wouldn't see, then it was off to play!

You know, I was concerned about Zachary losing his best friend and feeling lost. However, so far he has relished in having me all to himself. Andrew is asleep and Zachary and I have built a marble race, put together mega blocks, exercised, and are now playing outside. He is seeming to enjoy not having to fight for my attention.

I'm excited for this year. This school year will look very different from last year. This time last year we were brand new to VA. I was big as a house ready to pop and for the first time had the other 2 with me 24/7. For a year they have been with me constantly, and now they will each have some time away from each other and me. And I will gain some one on one time with each of them plus a couple of hours to do some stuff around the house while Andrew naps!

I'm so glad that Jacob gets out of school at noon. I've checked my watch 100 times. I'm so afraid I will forget to pick him up on time! I can't wait to hear all about his day!

Home sweet home

2009-08-23T09:58:00.002-04:00

I love coming home after being away. During the trip, Jacob said he missed our house. Even he knows that there is no place like home!

Making good time home allowed me to unpack, wash, and reset the house in record time. Andrew slept great for the first time back in his crib and the boys loved seeing their long lost toys. So Steve and I were able to get everything back in order.

Steve is coaching both of the boys soccer teams this season, which gets underway this week! Saturday morning Steve headed out to a coaches clinic then went to Jacob's school for a grounds work day. Bless his heart, he left the house at 8:00 and wasn't back until 2:30. I've never seen him so dirty before. He was literally caked in mud and grass from pressure washing at the school. When I saw that, I was ever thankful that Steve gladly represented our family for me at the work day!

Jacob and Zachary reunited with their neighborhood pals that they missed so much. They have played their hearts out with their friends this weekend as everyone tries to soak up all the time they can before summer comes to a close.

As we were getting ready for church this morning, Zachary got sick. Actually he woke up sick. As crazy as people think I am for being paranoid about the foods my kids eat and drink, this is why. Every time we travel or have a spell of lots of eating out and eating junk, someone gets sick. Their immune systems are so much stronger when they aren't eating sugar and processed foods, etc. He is so sick in fact, that when Steve and Jacob left for church, he didn't even want to watch a movie. He asked to go to bed! This has never happened! So I tucked him in bed at 8:00 am and he is sacked out. I feel so sorry for him. Your heart just aches to see your children sick like that.

Speaking of hearts aching, mine is. I'm so unprepared for Jacob starting school on Tuesday. I can't believe how hard this is for me! He is so excited and I am dying inside! I'm excited for him and I know it is the right thing for him, but I'm so sad to let him go already. I find myself thinking about the things I haven't prepared him for yet...even the silly ones, like how to tuck a shirt in. We never tuck our shirts in and he has to wear it tucked in with a belt. Will he be embarrassed if he can't buckle his belt or tuck his shirt in??? On the other hand, he is entering a new phase that is so exciting. Jacob is striving for independence. How is face lights up when I give him the green light to venture out a little further from my arms. Interestingly enough, when I let him go further, he comes back even closer. Isn't that how we are with God as well? Once we realize he loves us so much and gives us free will, we are naturally drawn to Him.

Pray for me Tuesday that I don't cry all day! Now that the boys and I have experienced some date times, they are wanting a little more of it. Jacob had an idea that he and I go on bike rides in the evenings together. I love the idea! Last night was our first one. Steve has to get my bike tuned up, so I had to walk while Jacob rode. We ended up not being alone as some of his friends joined us, but Jacob thought it was so cool. He rode all over the neighborhood and up some really steep hills. He was so proud! We came back and Zachary took a scooter ride. So Jacob came up with a system. One night a week Jacob and I take a bike ride and one night a week, Zachary and I take a bike ride. Then one night a month we go eat bbq and ice cream together. Full of ideas is Jacob!

More Beach Pictures

2009-08-23T09:41:00.005-04:00

Beach trip ends a great summer

2009-08-22T21:18:00.011-04:00

I can't think of a better way to say goodbye to summer than with a beach trip. This was the latest we have taken our annual beach trip, but it was nice to have it to look forward to all summer as well as really soak up that last week before school starts. Since Zachary was born, we have taken an annual beach trip with just us. We have always gone to Sandestin at the Hilton. Considering we are SO far from there now, we got to go to OBX. I was thrilled about this because I have always wanted to go there. Dawson's Creek was one of my favorite shows and that is how I picture OBX. Well, that as well as wild horses running down the beach. Sadly, we saw no horses :) but I knew we wouldn't. Crossing over the bridge, Steve began singing the Dawson's Creek song elevating the excitement for us all.

Overall the trip was fantastic. A week of no distractions is heaven to us! Steve and I really relished in the time we were able to be with the boys with nothing else going on. Each year they have enjoyed the beach experience more and more. When we think back to our first couple of trips, we laugh at how little time we were on the beach! For the first time ever, we were outside all day every day. I can honestly say we made the most of the days!

Steve decided that Andrew gets the MVB award, most valuable baby. He was such a trooper. Drew never ceases to amaze us with his flexibility and laid back personality. After 3 boys, I'm convinced that these traits are inborn, they are not developed. So I always thank God for giving us a baby that can just go with the flow of our family! He was such a joy last week. The beach was fascinating to him. The wet sand and massive ocean were intriguing to say the least. When he was awake, he was content to play near the ocean in the cool, wet sand, or he would splash in a small blow up raft. Once he was worn out, he would fall asleep with no fuss at all. Drew is a great napper anyway and has always been able to sleep out and about, but he was really lulled by the crashing waves. And how can you not be?

Amazingly, he would take 2 hour naps on the beach during which time Steve and I were able to sit in chairs. I read a book actually! Several wonderful families with kids were staying in our condo complex. We really lucked out when on our first day a family with 2 boys planted themselves next to us. They had a 5 and 11 year old. Jacob always flocks to older kids, so he was drawn to the 11 year old, who reminded us of our nephew Justyn. He was great with the kids, super sweet kid, and even organized games for them to play on the beach. This went on for 6 days...can you imagine how lucky we felt! So while Drew was napping and Jacob and Zachary were playing with friends, Steve and I were able to sit back and enjoy the beach! What a pleasant surprise for me! To be quite honest, as much as I was looking forward to vacation, I was also fearing the unknown of beach with baby!

We loved OBX. It was as I imagined it, lots of houses, beautiful beaches, gorgeous dunes, etc, etc. The pace was just right for our family. Our days looked like this: beach, beach, and more beach, followed by dinner then more beach sometimes. A few times we ventured out to do some outlet shopping or putt putt. Several ice cream trips were made, but mostly we just played at the beach and the pool.

One afternoon, Zachary said he was ready to go inside for awhile, so Steve took him in with a little skip in his step. Steve's favorite part of going to the beach is long afternoon naps with the air on full blast and a fan in the background. The fact that Zachary wanted to go in was a good sign for Steve. I was excited too because Andrew was asleep on the beach and Jacob said he wanted to take a nap on the beach. We were all so excited to get what we wanted. Jacob sacked out then I closed my eyes and was just entering that dreamy state when Andrew woke up crying. Arghhh...no nap for me! I hope Steve is getting his nap was running through my mind. I woke Jacob up and we headed inside. As we were heading up the stairs I was telling Jacob to be quiet so he didn't wake the sleeping bears, which both Steve and Zachary are! To our surprise they were awake. Unfortunately for Steve, Zachary just needed a cool down and recharge, but no nap! However, there were several days in there where we all got some good afternoon naps, then there were days where we just stayed out all day.

Certain moments from this trip I will cherish forever. Jacob asked me to take beach walks with him by ourselves. I jumped on this opportunity because I know this is when Jacob feels most loved. We had some great talks on our little walks. Jacob loves to "chat" as he calls it. Of course, then Zachary would ask for walks, and I would go with him as well. Another moment I will always remember is Zachary staying at the beach with me when Steve took the other 2 inside. He was so sweet! He brought out books so he could read on the beach like me. We took our chairs to the water's edge and read our books. After he read all his books, he put them away and just sat watching the water and relaxing. We built sandcastles together and took a walk on the beach. I loved having him with me while I did one of my favorite things in the world, enjoy one of God's most beautiful creations. We were even able to discuss all that God created in the ocean.

Steve is a big kid with the boys on the beach. They built lots of sandcastles, had lots of races, swam a ton, and played football. The boys were very brave in the ocean with Steve. I hate swimming in the ocean, so I always get out of that! The boys love their daddy. He is truly their hero and they want to do whatever he does. If their friends weren't outside yet, they were daddy's shadow. Daddy's have the hardest job at the beach since the boys really want daddy playing and swimming!

We had planned to come back on Friday because Saturday had so much in store for us back home. So Thursday night we packed up and tucked the boys in. Jacob was trying to hold it together and kept asking me if I was going to cry. I shared with him that I used to cry when I had to leave the beach as a child. I guess this made him feel better, but he didn't understand why I wasn't crying. So I assured him I was being strong for him!

Oh, I almost forgot! The trip down, wow, Steve took a "shortcut" that added an additional 3 hours to our trip. We should have made it in 5 hours. We were there in 8 hours, and that was only with 1 stop for lunch at Wendys!! I was reliving my childhood again. My dad was the master of long shortcuts! On the way home, we went the way we had originally planned to go and were home in 5 hours.

Friday morning we waved goodbye to the beach for another year. I'm very nostalgic about the beach with my children. Our very first beach trip, I remember a man commenting on our small boys and saying how fast time will go for us and before we know it they will be grown. That same year, I probably had 3 or 4 people say the same things. I don't ever rush a single day with my family. I know they will be grown before I know what has happened. I thank God that he has allowed us this time with them and that he has loaned them to us for now. And I thank God that He blessed us with another beach trip. I know these will be some of the memories that will stick in their little minds for life. They are for me!

Special time with my boys

2009-08-14T21:05:00.002-04:00

Monday I had my special "dates" with Jacob and Zachary separately. I gave them a blank slate and told them to choose what we would do. Jacob chose tennis, park, Red Lobster, ice cream, and giving our stuff and time to others. Zachary chose (copying his idolized big brother) tennis, park, and ice cream.

I took Jacob out first. We went to the park and played tennis on the "real court". We always hit on the driveway, but both boys have wanted me to take them to the tennis courts. I was miserably hot and having to act as if I weren't. This is when it is hard having boys. Girls are such girls, and I can't help but melt outside. Boys...well, they are unphased by the heat. After playing tennis, he wanted to play at the park. So we did. Finally, I convinced him it was time for lunch. Looking back, I see that he was dragging everything out not wanting the time to end. I have never taken them out by themselves for just one on one time and I could see Jacob was holding on tight. His love language is quality time, so he was feeling loved! We had a great lunch together at one of his favorite restaurants, went and shared an ice cream treat, then it was time to switch out. It was really nice to have Jacob to myself. He needs it more than the others because that is how he feels loved. Zachary's love language is words of affirmation. So with Zachary, he loves to spend time, but he feels loved most when I praise him or tell him I love him.

I called every organization I could think of to see if there was some volunteer opportunity for me and Jacob to do together. Sadly, there was nothing! Everyone thought he was just too young and would be in the way. I was so sad because he so badly wants to do something to help others. We have some other things in the work for the near future though!

When I pulled up to drop Jacob off and pick up Zach, he was already in the car before I realized it. He was ready to go! So off we headed to the tennis courts. I will never forget the image of Zachary's eyes lit up when we got to the courts. He was incredibly excited to play on the real courts. Every time the ball came to him, he was on top of it. He was all over the place...a bit spastic at times because he was so intense. But he did great! He is such a sports fanatic. Considering the fact that it was mid afternoon and 90 degrees, we didn't last too long...or I should say, I didn't last too long. As soon as I mentioned ice cream, Zach was ready to roll. After enjoying our ice cream, I took him to buy cleats. He shrieked when I asked if he would like to go buy him some cleats for soccer. He even said, "Now I won't wear my tennis shoes...only my cleats." I had to explain why that wouldn't be a good idea!

All in all, it was a great day. Both boys seemed to have a good time. I really enjoyed the time I had with them all to myself. Andrew did great for the sitter thankfully!

I likely won't post for a few days as we enjoy our last week together as a family before school starts.

Misleading studies claiming organics are no better than non organics

2009-08-11T10:24:00.005-04:00

There are many nay-sayers to the organic movement. Not sure why exactly, but for me the bottom line is anything is better than the highly processed convenience foods that are abundant in our culture these days.

We started eating a good bit of organics over the last couple of years mainly because there was nothing in between organic or processed food full of artificial flavor, preservatives or artificial sweetners. We naturally opted for the organic side of things. Over time we have learned more and more of how bad for you our food actually is. So many common illnesses have been linked to pesticides used in foods. Also, I didn't want to consume food from animals given antiobiotics. I want my body to respond properly to an antiobiotic if I need it to rather than building a resistance.

So now there are reports coming out claiming that organic foods offer no greater value than regular foods. First of all, common sense tells you that isn't true just by simply looking at the ingredients. Will our bodies be healthier consuming foods that are made up of 100 different chemically manufactured ingredients or foods that are made of of natural ingredients. So just on that alone, I would choose to eat the healthier option.

Here is an interesting retaliation to the new UK study found at http://www.stoneyfield.com/ Right on the home page is his answer to this new study. I found it very interesting.
There is also a movie coming out exposing the food industry. The movie is called FOOD, Inc.

About 4 years ago, I gave no thought to the foods I ate or drank. Then I started to do my own research. You can't deny that our nation is sicker than it has ever been. We just have made extreme advances in medicine so that we can now live comfortably with all of these illnesses.

We started small when we started trying to pay more attention to the foods we were buying at the grocery store. I would look at the ingredient list. If the list was very long and full of words I couldn't pronounce, I put it back. If there were artificial sweetners in it, I would put it back. And if there were any artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. I would always rule out anything with corn syrup. We then moved beyond that to just doing organic milk. That is a whole different subject!

The good news is that now there are more options than ever before at the grocery store. Organic and natural foods have come down in cost so there isn't that much of a price difference. The way I look at spending the extra money at the grocery store is ,would I rather spend a little more for healthy food or a spend that money at the doctor's office and on medicines when what I'm consuming is breaking down my body.

We can't control our environment and we are surrounded by unhealthy things in our society. However, there are a few things we can control. And what we eat is one of them. The way I view it is that I will do the things that I can control to help my kids have healthy bodies and immune systems. We still eat out, we let our kids have sweets for treats, we let them have Sprite occassionally, but we try to limit their overall exposure to harmful foods. And we want to raise them to see health as a positive thing and choose healthy foods because they want healthy bodies!

Grandpa and Great Grandpa's Weekend Visit

2009-08-11T09:21:00.004-04:00

Waiting for Steve and Zachary to appear after temper tantrum

Strolling through Monticello

Monticello

4 Generations

We were so honored to have Great Grandpa with us for the weekend! Steve's dad and grandpa took the train from Atlanta to Charlottesville Thursday night arriving Friday morning. Jacob wanted to ride with Steve to pick them up at the station, so they headed out of the house before 6 am.

Friday morning was spent sitting outside catching up followed by a tour from Steve of Harrisonburg. After lunch we headed back to Charlottesville to tour Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. The adults appreciated what we were seeing, but the boys didn't really care for it much. Later they said they didn't enjoy going to "Thomas's house". We were all on edge touring this 200 year old home with Zachary! Friday night, Steve grilled some steaks for us and we just enjoyed the weather outside before the heat came on Saturday.

For the first time all summer, the temps reached the 90s starting on Saturday. Steve had to work on Saturday so the rest of us just kind of hung around. We checked out the auction, took the kids to chic fil a for lunch followed by Klines ice cream for an afternoon treat. Saturday night we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant. Sunday was our last day :( We hung around the house in the morning then headed to Massanutten for a picnic lunch, playground and putt-putt. Steve lost to his dad. Steve is 0 for 2 against the dads now.

The boys had a grand time with Grandpa and Great Grandpa. This was their first time of spending a good deal of time with Great Grandpa and they took to him immediately. After he left, they kept talking about what a nice man he is. Great Grandpa was able to see the boys in their element for the first time also. He saw how much of boys they are! Zachary liked to open up Great Grandpa's door while he was sleeping to check on him. Jacob and Zachary always love when Grandpa is around. He had them outside playing soccer, baseball and everything else they would drag out.

We were finally able to get a shot of 4 generations of Robinsons. We tried once but Zachary was having a melt down so we waited until he cooperated better! We had such a nice visit, but as always the time flew by. Jacob cried after they left, which is pretty typical. He recovered quickly and began recounting the fun times we had over the weekend.

When God tests us to DO what we SAY we believe

2009-08-10T09:06:00.003-04:00

I'm not in the best of moods this morning. Like every mom of little ones, I am overwhelmed with "stuff" to do in the midst of taking care of their needs and running the house. Unfortunately I woke up with my never ending to-do list front and center in my mind. And I allowed it to shape my mood.

The mood I felt encouraged me to sit down to have my quiet time with God BEFORE seeing my children this morning. I knew I needed Him to get me through this day. Of course, Zachary got up much earlier than normal JUST as I sat down with coffee and my Bible. So I asked him to stay in bed until it was "wake up time". He sweetly went to bed and woke up Jacob! So now they are both in their rooms and I had to smile at what I viewed as Satan's sly attempt to get me distracted from God. I managed to have a very quick quiet time with the LORD before going into their rooms and getting our day started.

Well, as the morning wore on, they seemed to do everything they could to drive me up a wall. And I could feel this mood getting worse and worse. Now, this is really inconvenient timing to be in a mood like this b/c today is the day I'm taking each of the boys out for a special date alone! So I really needed to get myself together. Part of my sourness is that each of them has chosen for me to take them to play tennis. It is going to be 95 today! The last place I want to be is on a sunny tennis court. I tried and tried to suggest indoor ideas and they wouldn't budge. Soooo, we will be outside sweating, which I hate to do!

After impatiently playing a game of Sorry, I told them I needed to go get some work done before our dates started. I sat down to my computer and my devotion from Proverbs 31 ministries was beckoning me from my inbox. The title was One Good Reason, which intrigued me for some reason. If the title doesn't grab me, I often find I'm "too busy" to read it.

The devotion was wonderfully written, full of examples and imagery about how to live a life that imitates Christ. I read it, felt the warm fuzzies, and thought "isn't that nice...I will remember this one" then closed my email. Immediately, enter Jacob and Zachary with very very sad faces. Jacob said, "Mommy, we are very, very sorry and we know how sad you are about to be. But we poked a hole in your exercise ball. We didn't mean to and we are very sorry." I looked at Zachary who was holding a sharpened pencil in one hand and was staring at the floor attempting to have a solemn look on his face. So I said, "Oh no, I am very sad. How did this happen?" Zachary replied, "Well, Jacob would hit the ball to me and I would block it with my pencil. And all of the sudden the ball popped." Honestly, I was irritated first because this is my 2nd exercise ball and they aren't cheap. As quick as I got irritated, something flashed in my mind. It was the application step of the devotion I had JUST read that gave me the warm fuzzies. The application step said

"Remember - why your life with Jesus is better than your life was without Him.
Pray - for a passion to represent Christ and draw others to Him.
Live - authentically, genuinely, and purposefully.
Reflections:How often do you think about how you represent Christ in daily living?"

What entered my mind was representing Christ to my children in order to draw my children to Christ. Would I draw them to Christ if I angered easily at them, if I couldn't forgive a childish mistake? Would I draw them to Christ if I showed mercy and forgiveness? Nothing makes me love Christ more than when I see Him vividly like this. When I can see Him work in my heart and mind and test me to put into action what I say I believe. It is easier to say what we believe than to live it out. My human instinct was to have the boys see why I was upset, but Christ gently reminded me that I am here to draw others to Him because He offers what the world can't, namely unconditional love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy. My primary influence is over my children. After quickly thanking God for the gentle reminder and the opportunity to play out what He had just shown me, I asked each of them to come to me. Jacob said, "Mommy, I think I want to cry because you must be so sad." Taking him by surprise, I said, "You did the right thing by coming to me with the truth and feeling sorry over a mistake that you thought would make me sad. I forgive you." I said the same thing to Zachary. However, Zachary was forcing himself not to look at me because he was trying not to laugh.

I have no idea if they saw God's forgiveness and mercy in my showing it to them. Only God knows that. Afterwards, my sour mood lifted and my heart felt light. God does the most amazing things in our lives when we allow Him in. I pray that I never begin to live my life on my own shutting out His goodness and love. I can't imagine getting through days like today started out without Him at the center. When my children one day question why we believe what we believe about Christ, I will have a million examples like today where I can show them God's personal work in our lives. The thing is, we don't fully experience it until we have put our faith in Him 100%. Once we do that, we unleash amazing things God wants to do in our lives.

Getting ready for the weekend

2009-08-05T21:16:00.003-04:00

We are so excited about the upcoming weekend. We have Steve's dad and grandpa coming to stay for the weekend. The boys get so excited when we have people come stay with us. They love the whole preparation process. Cleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking are suddenly fun and exciting to them. It is so cute to see them get excited about making sure we are prepared for our guests.

The fact that I haven't posted anything in 7 days shows how little time I've had lately. Last weekend Steve went camping for the weekend in Tennessee with Scott, Luke and Doug, college buddies and roommates. I took advantage of the weekend to complete lots of projects. My list consisted of stuff that either I had started and not finished or stuff that just needed to get done. I cleaned closets, finished a scrapbook, framed pictures that have been sitting in the drawers, then started painting the guest room. I despise painting. I thought it would be easier than it was. Poor boys were neglected this week while I was consumed with getting the painting finished. Jacob's comment on the almost completed room, "Paint is looking better. Just a little sloppy." Thankfully, Steve rescued me by finishing up the trim that I was making worse and worse the more I touched it!

Our oven is finally fixed after being broken for 3 weeks! We were living off the toaster oven that we had to buy in order to have somewhat nutritious dinners. I realized I really took my oven for granted.

We had put Zachary on the wait list at a preschool close by for the fall. A spot opened up this week, so we signed him up. He is so excited! I waited until the last minute to look for a preschool because I thought I wanted to keep him home with me. But he began talking about how bad he wanted to go to school, and with he and Jacob being apart for the first time, it might be good for Zachary to have something to do. It is only 3 mornings a week so Zach and I will have 2 mornings to spend together. And then I will have 3 mornings with just Andrew, so that should be nice as well to be able to have some one on one time with him.

Jacob is getting very excited about school starting. I received the school supply list and started crying...how will I hold up that first morning when we drop him off? I am very excited for him and very excited about his school. I'm just sad he is already old enough to GO to school! I feel like I just had him. Steve continues to tell me I have to keep it together that day until I'm out of Jacob's sight. So next week is my "date" with Jacob followed by a "date" with Zachary. They have both requested that I take them to the park, to play tennis, eat, and ice cream.

Andrew is doing good. He has been pretty fussy this week and seems frustrated. I think he is ready to crawl and is just frustrated. While sitting up, he will lean all the way forward until his head hits the floor and then grunt as loud as he can. He'll figure it out soon I'm sure!

What we are up to this week

2009-07-30T13:17:00.003-04:00

Little soldiers...Zachary was David ready to defeat Goliath. Jacob was a marine. (BTW I realize Jacob is wearing this shirt in every single picture. He does have other shirts, but this is his favorite and he dresses himself...so what can I do? One day that shirt will be lost before it can be passed down to Zachary!)

This tiny little pool I bought for Andrew. However, J & Z were more excited. They could barely sit in it. I ended up blowing up a bigger pool for them to play in. I was surprised that it was still fun to them. It has been a long time since they have splashed around in a baby pool.

All dried off and warmed up watching J & Z finish playing

Cold but interesting...He kept trying to catch the grass floating in the water.

In an effort to have an easygoing week, we have seemed to continue to fill the days full of activities. Yesterday we had a bunch of errands to run but it was mixed in with places the boys love. We visited the dollar store, which they love b/c they always have change enough to buy something, and the army surplus store for Jacob. Jacob loves anything military and his eyes were so lit up walking through the store. He ended up buying a full size US Marines flag for his playroom, dog tags, and a camo helmet. He wanted much more, but that was as far as his money would carry him.

I finished up my last tennis lesson last night. I hated for it to end. It was nice to have something to go to for myself! The exercise was much needed and it was just nice to get out! Hopefully, I can continue to play at least once a week with some of the girls I met through the clinic. I must say, I am so impressed with Steve and his ability to keep all the boys at night for me to do these lessons. I leave at meltdown time no less...right at dinner, bath, and bedtime. When I get home, the house is quiet, everyone is fed, clean, and asleep! I appreciate his willingness to take over with a "happy heart", as we tell the boys, and even an encouraging spirit. Steve realizes that for this house to run happily, I need a break every now and then!

We met some friends at the park this morning. As I was rounding up our stuff to go, Andrew fell asleep on the floor in the living room waiting on me! I felt horrible. Of course, he woke up when I tried to move him to the car when it was time to leave. The kids had a blast at the park with their friends and Andrew went back to sleep there, so it was nice for everyone! After leaving the park, I didn't have the energy to make lunch (and really didn't want to clean the kitchen again!) so I took the kids to chick-fil-a. I think I can count on one hand how many times I've taken all 3 of them by myself to a restaurant. They were angels though! And just to continue wearing everyone out, I promised them I would fill up the baby pools when we got home. You know, I really would think Jacob wouldn't be interested in the baby pools anymore. However, he was the most excited. He was splashing around, legs hanging out and all! For the first time, Andrew sat in the pool. Here we are at the end of summer, and this is Andrew's first time to even sit in cold water. He started to cry, but then stopped and seemed to enjoy it. I'm trying to get him used to it before we leave for the beach! He still doesn't like the cold water at the pool here.

Andrew is changing quickly now. He is getting bigger every day and is babbling lots of words. His squeals are much louder now and he isn't quiet about letting you know when he doesn't like the food we offer him either!

As our summer zooms on by

2009-07-28T20:44:00.004-04:00

Playing instruments at childrens museum

Just as the rest of the summer has flown past us, last weekend did the same. Saturday Steve and the boys did multiple outdoor projects. My dad must have inspired Steve because I couldn't get him to stop! Around 3:00 we had friends over that have 3 kids as well. Our boys LOVE their kids and they had a blast. For some reason every single time we have people over, it rains. Saturday was no different. It started to rain around 4:00 and continued all night. We had such a good time the kids got to stay up way late and we all hit the bed around 10!

Sunday morning getting up for church was quite a challenge for the little guys. Bless their hearts, we were barking orders and forcing breakfast in the car in order to make it on time. Isn't it funny how it can be so chaotic getting your family to church, then the car doors open and smiles are on. You enter the doors as if all is well and everyone is happy, knowing full well that all was not well just 2 minutes before!

After lunch, we spent the day at the home of one of Steve's co-workers. He and his wife had us over to swim and grill steaks. The day couldn't have been better. To begin with they were incredible hosts. They made us feel so welcome. We were able to put Andrew down to nap in their house so we could watch the boys enjoying the pool. After pool time we went up to their barn. The barn was like nothing I had ever seen! It was amazing and was full of character and charm. When the doors of the barn opened up, it looked like a restaurant. Lots of tables and great entertaining spaces. They had a mounted bear head on the wall that had a hat on and a golf ball in his mouth. Jacob wanted to know if the bear was wearing the hat when he was shot! Oh, my poor son got my brains!!!

Last night my whole family came to watch my tennis lessons only because the boys have been begging to come. They left before it was over, so when I got home I ran up to their room to see what they thought. Jacob is just painfully honest sometimes. I asked what he thought and he said he only watched me a little bit and watched everyone else more. He continued on to say that everyone else was better than me. Stinker! I'm not that bad!

So this week I want to SLOW down. I feel like the last few weeks have just been crazy. I want to enjoy those "long, lazy days of summer." We started the day yesterday trying to be lazy, but I couldn't stay the course. Today I decided to take my munchkins to the childrens museum. We always have a great time there. For the first time, Andrew got to come out of the stroller there and join the fun! After a very brief rest time (0nly enough time for me to pay a couple of bills online) we had friends over to play for the afternoon. Then we met Steve over at the pool for an evening swim. What a great day to be a kid!

I wrote last year about Jacob's 5th birthday and how he had wanted to be 5 since he was 4. He is counting down to be 6 now. Where is the time going? I made the point to him today about how fast this year has gone and he agreed. So quit rushing your years, sweet boy!

Obama's Socialized Health Care Plan

2009-07-27T20:57:00.002-04:00

I'm terrified by Obama's health care plan. I'm even more terrified about how desperate he is to get it passed so quickly.

If you are opposed to his plan, call your representative. The Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you do not know who your representative is, you can give them your zip code and they will direct you to the right person.

We are watching the government take our freedoms from us. Let's stop them from controlling everything like they are set out to do.

HIlarious wedding video

2009-07-24T20:44:00.001-04:00

I'm sure everyone has seen this today. It is circulating like crazy on the internet, but it is hilarious! Check this youtube video out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

J & Z participate in a track meet

2009-07-24T13:20:00.002-04:00

EMU hosts track meets during the summer open to everyone. Some friends told us that their kids love to compete in these. Since Jacob and Zachary LOVE to run, we thought it would be really fun for them to get out and race kids their own age.

We had no idea how much they would love it! The meets are held at EMU and put on by the Shenandoah Valley Track Club. It is a well organized meet broken down into age groups. Both Jacob and Zachary were in the 5 and under group. However, they even split up beyond that so 3 year olds raced 3 year olds, 4 year olds raced 4 year olds, and 5 year olds raced 5 year olds.

I signed them up for the 60m dash, 100m dash, and the 200m. Zachary was up first. Steve was with him at the start line and I was waiting at the finish. I can't put into words what Zachary's face looked like coming down that lane. In his almost 4 years of life, I have never seen that look. It was pure excitement, adrenaline, and life. As he was running, he continued looking left to right to see if any kids were catching up to him. He came in first place! He knew he won and he crossed the finish line and said, "I won, mommy! I won! I beat all those kids. I can't believe I beat everyone!" He then proceeded to say, "I LOVE this. This is so awesome. I want to do it again." Part of why Zachary loved it is that he won. He is ALWAYS racing against older kids, so he always loses. He has never experienced running against kids his own age.

Next up was Jacob for the 60m dash. Unfortunately, he got off to a bad start. I don't think he was prepared for them to signal the start, so he paused and took off when he saw everyone else take off. However, he quickly caught up. He put it on full speed too. He crossed the finish line in first place just a touch ahead of the 2nd place runner. As he crossed the finish line, he burst into tears. I assumed he thought he lost and that was the cause of the tears. He wouldn't tell me what was wrong and he followed Zachary back to the start line to get ready for the 100m.

Both Jacob and Zachary came in first place in the 100m in the age groups. Zachary came in first place in the 200m and Jacob came in 2nd place in the 200m. I was a bit sad for Zachary. He came in first place in all 3 of his races, but he didn't actually win a ribbon because ribbons were awarded based on the times of the 5 & under group. So even though Zachary had the fastest times in the 3 year olds, he didn't beat the 5 year olds. Jacob brought home the ribbons for their age group. But Zachary knows he won, and he was very proud of himself.

Zachary loves his Crocs and never wants to wear anything but them. So to convince him to wear his tennis shoes to the meet was a challenge. When he started crying that they hurt (and they don't!) I had to sprinkle "magic dust" on them to stretch them out. Then they were a perfect fit! Today both boys are wearing tennis shoes....that doesn't happen in the summer in our house! They wear crocs and flip-flops everyday!

We made a pit stop for ice cream on the way home. As we were driving, Jacob said, "Mom, you know why I was crying?" I answered that I didn't know. He said, "I was happy crying." Mine and Steve's hearts melted. He cried because he was so happy to win! Jacob's heart is so full of emotions all the time.

Today Jacob's ribbons are displayed proudly on his wall and he has talked about them all day. Zachary has talked all day about how he can't believe he beat everyone. I love to hear him retell his victory run where a girl almost beat him!

Faith Hope Love Infant Rescue

2009-07-23T21:22:00.002-04:00

I received an email from a dear friend, Kimberley Patterson. She was passing along an email from a good friend of hers that really stood out to me. Below is the email that Kimberley received from her friend, Dorothy, working in Haiti with orphans. I am always moved to see the work of saints like Dorothy who are devoting their lives to God's work. Please join me in praying for her requests. At the bottom of her email is her blog.

Email:

Hello to all! We haven't had internet for over a month.I am typing on my own new computer, a generous gift from Casey! Her computer-genius friend saved everything from the hard drive of my dead computer and loaded it on this laptop. This email will be sent from my satellite dish thanks to a new modem contributed by a church in Georgia. I praise God for the wonderful way His people care for each other in His name!

We desperately need a new car, a reliable late-model vehicle sturdy enough for Haiti's roads! Please pray about this with us! The last problem I mentioned in May was fixed only to be followed by a new problem with overheating. Since then the alternator and battery have stopped working. It seems a waste of money to pour more money into repairing a 17 year old car. Not having a car makes it almost impossible to care for sick children.

Our precious Rosetaina went to heaven on July 7th. She left many broken hearts behind but I am relieved that her suffering is over and she is with Jesus. Doctors had planned to start her on anti-retroviral meds on July 1st but her AIDS was too advanced. She was admitted to the hospital on June 15th with vomiting. She improved briefly but then went downhill quickly. Ti-Rose's mother was with her throughout this last illness.

When the hospital got Taina's history from her mother at admission we learned that the mother has had 3 previous children who died around the same age, maybe from the same illness. She also aborted 2 fetuses. It is hard to believe that she didn't know she is HIV positive and I had a real problem with anger towards her. Then I watched the pain in her face as she tended Taina. After that I remembered God's grace [defined as "showing love and kindness to someone who does not deserve it."] and remembered that Jesus willingly died for our sins. He forgives all the awful things I do. He turned my anger into compassion for a sick, hurting woman.

This is the second time I have watched a baby die from AIDS. Fabienne died in 2006 when she was 16 months old. Rosetaina would have been 2 yrs old on July 19th. In both cases the babies were very malnourished when we took them in even though their families had done the best they could. In both cases we were able to restore the children to fairly good health that allowed them to enjoy their lives. In both cases we lost the final battle.

But did we really lose? I don't think so.

God has both babies in heaven for eternity, now healthy

Our nannies, and by extension many others, learned that people with AIDS are normal people with a nasty disease. They deserve our loving care. The nannies are no longer afraid to care for the sick babies.

The children's families, our staff, our community, have seen God's compassion, Jesus' tender loving care, in action. His loving grace draws people to Him.

Doctors were pleased with Johnny and Lovensky at their last visit to the AIDS clinic. We left the house about 7:30 am and got home just before 4 p.m. Lovensky is a very active little boy. It’s a minor miracle that we all had a good day. We updated their chest xrays and will get the results at next month’s visit. So far they’re doing fine without ARV therapy. Both boys are now walking! Praise God for their continued good health!!!

I surprised myself at the AIDS clinic. For 4 years I have repeatedly, vehemently stated that we only take infants. The psychologist in the clinic asked if I would agree to take an abandoned 9 year old HIV+ girl when she is released from the hospital. Without a second thought – and with great peace – I said YES. Starting a home for children with AIDS has been in the back of my mind for a long time. It seems to me that God is ready for me to leave the ‘thinking’ stage and move into the ‘planning’ stage. I envision an organization composed of Americans and Haitians so the work will continue long after I am gone. Please pray about this new venture and whether God has a role for you in it.

The laboratory couldn't get any blood from Aron to run tests. A visiting surgeon was able to get a little blood. All we learned is that he is severely anemic: his hemoglobin is only 6.2. He should be given a blood transfusion but it isn’t a good option here in Haiti. Aron has finally gained enough strength to drink from a bottle. He can smile and coos interactively. It would be impossible not to fall in love with him. He’s up to 7 lbs.!!! His head seems to be growing which means he couldn't possibly have total fusion of all the suture lines in his skull. We need a CT scan - $300 USD - for a precise diagnosis.

Madeline and Roseline were picked up by the Merritts to return them to Bercy. Once again Rusty ‘accused’ me of substituting new children for the ones he left in April (smile). Madeline (between 2 and 3 years old) gained 4 lbs. – from 14 lbs to 18lb 6 oz. The most dramatic change in 6 yr old Roseline is her beautiful, lush, black healthy hair. Madeline cried, as would any small child making yet another major change in her life. Roseline was sad to leave Gertie but happy to be returning to her mother.

Eileen Murphy came to visit in June and, as always when she comes to Haiti, she brought her tools and gave me a beautiful professional haircut. It was a treat! Praise God for faithful friends.

Sterling went home with her mother on July 3rd after having the last set of casts put on her legs at Healing Hands. The surgery in March to treat her hydrocephalus was not successful - her head has grown 3 cm since coming here - so she will need a shunt when the surgeons return in November. It is important for Sterline and her mother to remain bonded but her mother wasn't visiting very often. I sent baby formula, cereal, baby food, vitamins, and everything else we could think of because we know her mother cannot buy these things. She can return for refills but must bring Sterline with her so we can keep an eye on her health. Sterline's vision has been affected but she loves singing, especially Rogers and Hammerstein soundtracks, and tries to sing along. Pray that God will prevent further brain damage from the increasing pressure in her head. Pray that her mother will treasure every minute she spends with her beautiful daughter.

Jameson went home with his mother the same day. He had been here over a year. His mother decided she didn't want to take him back but she doesn't want to give him up either. She is looking for an orphanage to raise him for her. I cannot not agree to do that. My work is to help families stay together. I wish I could find a way to help her move to a better area than Cite Soleil and be able to support her family.

Miltha’s mother took her home on June 22nd. Miltha cried and I wanted to join her. I don't feel confident that her mother will take good care of her. Though my goal is to keep families together that isn't the best thing in every situation. Please pray for God to guide me and all the other missionaries here trying to make tough decisions: we want to help but not take over. We want for people to be able to stand on their own, looking to God for all their needs and giving back to Him everything they have and are.

Jim Hambrick from Christian Light Foundation brought a group from Virginia to visit us. They were very sweet, really interested in the children. They brought lots of goodies, like pediatric masks and nasal canulas, formula, diapers, wipes, vitamins and other things we really need. Mostly they brought love for the children and for me. They prayed over us and left us feeling really blessed. Thank you all, Jim and group!

The triplets (remember them from a couple of years ago?) came to visit a couple of weeks ago. They needed food. As part of our follow-up care with children who return to their families, we provide food and medical care as we are able. (Thanks to two great organizations – Feed My Starving Children and Love A Child – we still have rice to share though we can no longer give milk, peanut butter, oil and other staples.) The 3 girls are due to start school this year. We want to find a sponsor to pay their school fees.

Prayer requests:
A new car
A new home to rent. Part of our house will be torn down in the mayor's road-widening project
Sponsors to pay for the triplets' schooling
Funds to re-stock our stores of powdered milk, peanut butter, oil and other staples we send to our reunited families
God's guidance for handling children who truly need long-term care, whether orphaned or not
God's guidance on whether and how to start a facility primarily for children with AIDS.
Praise God that earlier this week we were able to pay our staff for May and June. Pray for His blessings on these wonderful workers.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. Blessings on you all.
Dorothy Pearce

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." I Cor. 13:13

Faith-Hope-Love Infant Rescue
http://dorothypearcehaiti.blogspot.com

Donations: Christian Light Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 23881 Jacksonville FL 32241-3881 Memo: For D. Pearce, Haiti -- :) Kimberley

Aron & Kervens 7-7-09.jpg

Herode 6-10-09.jpg

Jameson and Sterline go home with their mothers 7-3-09.jpg

Kimberly Madeline & Miltha walk 6-11-09.jpg

Madeline 6-10-09.jpg

taina in hospital.jpg

May 2nd 023.jpg

Each visit makes our hearts grow fonder

2009-07-22T07:55:00.011-04:00

Cee-Cee after our hike, enjoying ice cream with Jacob and Zachary. One of our several ice cream stops over the weekend!

It was so painful for Dad to get directions that I couldn't resist taking a picture. I remember many times during my childhood when our trips would be much longer because he took a "shortcut" and wouldn't get directions!!

Mid-hike...everyone hung in well!

Andrew started in the backpack and finished in the stroller. He was a trooper as always.

Steve being a good loser and Dad trying to be humble.

Zachary had a blast with Cee-Cee riding the go-karts and Jacob was hoping he and Paw-Paw would win!

The smiles on their faces tell the whole story of the weekend. These are their real smiles. Jacob's doesn't get more real than this. They love Paw Paw and Cee Cee and enjoyed every second they could.

With tears, we said goodbye this morning to my dad and Francine. Our visit with them couldn't have been better. They were able to stay from Friday until this morning, so we were able to get some good time in with them. However, like always, the time was gone before we realized it.

My heart breaks for Jacob. He has such a sweet, sensitive heart that is just torn when visitors leave.

Saturday was our first full day. We woke up to a great big breakfast that my dad cooked. The boys ALWAYS anticipate a big Paw-Paw breakfast when we are with him. They love his breakfast! Later in the morning, Steve, dad, and the boys went to a car show while Francine and I stayed back with Andrew. Later in the afternoon, we ate bbq then went to ride go-karts and play putt-putt. My dad is like a big kid on go-karts. He was challenging little kids out there...and I think he did lap everyone there. You can see their smiles in the pictures, but the boys had a blast riding with Paw- Paw and Cee-Cee (btw, Francine's name of Cee-Cee originated when Jacob was a baby and couldn't say Francine). After a couple of go-kart rides, we moved on to putt-putt. Steve and Dad were fiercely competing :) Dad pulled out the win by one!

Sunday morning we were treated with another Paw-Paw breakfast then we took off for the mountains for a hike. Jacob and Zachary love to be in the woods with my dad. He seems to know everything about animals and life in the woods, so they soak in all of his knowledge and stories. At the end of the trail, we decided to take a different route back and because of the kids, I felt we needed to ask directions. I didn't want a repeat experience where Zachary cried for a mile! I think it physically pains my dad to ask for directions. We forced him to face it and just do it. He couldn't do it! I watched him do everything to avoid actually asking for directions. He even had a ranger standing waiting to help and my dad just tried to play it off by looking at a map. So I couldn't resist snapping a picture! Dad proceeded to tell the ranger that I was lost and needed help! After getting our directions, we got some ice cream for the walk back to our car.

We got back home and the guys went to pick up hot wings for dinner. Poor Dad...Steve bought him the hottest wings they had. He couldn't have enjoyed his meal too much while his stomach was on fire!!

Monday we hung around the house while Dad did projects. We honestly didn't have any major projects for him this trip, just a few small things. But he just can't sit still and he notices things that don't bother us. And we are happy to let him do whatever needs to be done. So Monday, he did the following projects: fixed our crawlspace door, built a our swing into the trees, pressure washed some, replaced a toilet valve, checked a leak, then started on a project I will tell about later! We did break for awhile to run out for ice cream at Klines.

Monday night was the big burger cookoff that Steve challenged him to. Each of them pattied up some burgers and we all were the judge. Although, they were both great, Steve won the competition. The taste difference was really slight between the 2, but the deciding factor was Francine saying that one tasted like meatloaf...that happened to be Dad's. So, Steve's burger won that round.

Tuesday morning we went to the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction. It is beautiful out there and they really enjoyed looking at all the farms. But Dad was just itching to get back home. He had a big project on his mind he wanted to dive into. Over the weekend, he noticed that we had a sprinkler system box in our garage. When he asked us about it, we told him that we had seen one sprinkler head out back and knew we had a box. But it wasn't listed with the house and the agent never mentioned it, so we thought it was an old system that wasn't active anymore. Well, my dad was determined to figure it out. So he went exploring in the yard finding all the valves and manually turning them on. And to our shock, several sprinkler heads popped out of the ground and started watering! Once he figured out where all the zones were, he realized there was a busted pipe underground. So he dug it up and replaced the pipe that had been cut by the power company's line. So he got that all working on manual, then called an irrigation company to come out to see about the electrical side of it. Surprisingly, they were able to make it out the same day and with a quick visit had our system programmed and operating great! We had a sprinkler system all along that we didn't even know about and my dad was able to get it up and running for us. To say we were excited is an understatement!

But, poor Dad! He was exhausted. I continued to remind him that we don't put him to work when he comes. He chooses to seek out projects because he has a hard time sitting still. Steve and I don't have that problem!!

The boys had a lot of bonding time with Francine and my dad. Cee-Cee bought the boys Trouble at the store and they played that repeatedly. She does such a great job of just being with them, talking to them, listening to their very long stories, playing the games they love to play. One day she and Zachary went to rest and took a nap together. Another day Jacob wanted to join and they all ended up just playing in bed. Poor Cee Cee was tormented by the boys. And she was always there helping me with Andrew. I will miss her extra set of hands. She fed Andrew for me at bedtime and gave him most of his meals so I could do other things. She spoiled me with all her help!!! The boys love the time they spend with Paw-Paw. They love to sit and listen to his stories and the honestly soak in everything he says. He also played Trouble with them and let them be "helpers" during work times.

This morning we said our tearful goodbyes. We had a wonderful visit and were so sad to see it come to an end. This is part of the best and worst thing about us moving from family. It is so hard to see them go, but at the same time, we are so much closer now because our visits are longer and more concentrated! Jacob cried pretty hard when they were leaving and took about an hour to snap out of it. Seeing him cry made all of us cry...well, except for Z-man. Zach just skips along in life enjoying the good times, not focusing on anything except food and fun.

Workers in training

2009-07-17T08:46:00.003-04:00

Ant farm we started this week...

Both Jacob and Zachary are such great little helpers. Zachary has actually taken on the role of my official Andrew helper. He loves to give him toys, feed him, bathe him, etc. Jacob has always been a helper, but since Andrew was born is when Zachary was able to step up and take more responsibility. Jacob had always held that role. So now they both are helpers. Often neither of them needs to be asked to help. They have really started offering up their help when they see I need it. If I am in the middle of feeding Andrew and have to take care of something, one of them usually just slides into my seat and continues feeding Drew without being prompted. I love to see a servant side of them emerging rather than always being served!

It is interesting to see how much Zachary loves praise. We all love to hear that someone thinks we did a great job. Often, younger or middle siblings may "appear" to not care about things such as chores and school work, but my theory is that they just don't want to compete with the first born or the one in the family that typically "does everything right". In order for Zachary to not fall into that pattern, I've been trying to make an effort to give him the same responsibilities as Jacob (taking into consideration the age difference when needed) and offering up encouragement and praise for jobs well done.

I read some really interesting articles recently about how it isn't the best thing for your child to hear constant praise or to hear statements like "You are so smart" "You are so handsome" "You are a good boy". Instead to say things like, "You did a great job on that worksheet. I can tell how hard you tried." Or intead of saying "You are a great baseball player", saying, "You can tell you have been practicing hard. You are really throwing the ball well." One of the main reasons is so that when they don't perform well or when they do misbehave they will not think "I'm a bad boy" or "I"m not smart". Also they believe you more when you focus on specifics. General praise doesn't provide them with the proper encouragement.

This week we have been running like crazy. In addition to a full plate, we had lots of chores to do to get ready for our houseguests this weekend. Yesterday we needed to clean the house. Jacob always begs me to let him help. Sometimes it is so hard for me to let him help because I know I could do it faster by myself. But I will never turn away help. At some point, his help will be much needed! I was so surprised to see what all he is capable of doing now. Up until now he has helped me by emptying trashcans, cleaning counters, and dusting furniture. Yesterday he actually vacuumed the bathrooms and mopped them. And he did as good a job as I would have done. Zachary, seeing Jacob helping, snuck down to the basement. I thought he was going to play to get out of work. But he came upstairs beaming and told me to come see what he had done for me. He had cleaned all the toys in the basement and was so proud of himself. They now think it is fun to see what they can do without being asked. However, Zachary did make the comment, "Mommy, you know why I don't like to clean alot? Because I don't like to work." But really he is a hard worker when he wants to be. It just has to be on his terms! Since that won't cut it for his employer one day, we'll have to really work on that!

Last week, Zachary didn't do any of his chores. Instead of nagging him about it, I continued on like normal. Jacob picked up Zachary's slack. So on Friday when I handed out allowance, I took Zachary's allowance and gave it to Jacob. I explained that Zachary chose to not do his share of work and Jacob had to do it. So I was going to pay Jacob for the work that Zachary would have received. Needless to say this week Zachary was more than willing to help. When he got his allowance this morning, he was so excited!

We started and ant farm this week. Steve is a bit concerned about the ants escaping. Surprisingly, Zachary hasn't been tempted to open the lid. However, I did catch Jacob opening it. So far, none have escaped. I've never had an ant farm, so I'm fascinated by these little creatures. It has given me a great opportunity to explain how to be a hard worker to the boys using these little ants. They work non stop! And they are so efficient. Steve and I went to dinner with friends last night and it was late when we got home. After I did some stuff around the house, I realized I needed to feed the ants. I dropped a tiny piece of carrot in their habitat and was mesmerized as I watched them flock to it. It was so neat to see their activity and communication. I think I enjoy our little science projects as much as the kids do!

And today is the day my dad and Francine arrive. Jacob woke up saying, "Today is the day." He drew some pictures of deer and put them on their pillows for them. The hard part is keeping them from asking all day how much longer!

Flyer from Arby's

2009-07-16T15:08:00.002-04:00

Not too long ago, the boys and I ran through the Arby's drive thru for lunch. In my bag was a most interesting flyer. It had the Arby's logo and a picture of the American flag with people holding hands in front of it.

Here is how it read:

RALLY AROUND OUR FLAG

America

A Nation in Distress

Stop government stealing! Speak up today and everyday to protect our heritage of civil liberties and private property rights.

Tell everyone that you will not tolerate the theft of private property and theft of private investments that our government is currently unconstitutionally engaged in.

Defend those under attack, and support those who will risk everything to fight for your freedoms.

God Bless America

I found this interesting because it is a reminder that I'm not the only one outraged at what is happening in our government right now. When fast food restaraunts are stuffing your bag with these messages, you know it is bad!

We can feel powerless to do anything, thus leading us to do nothing. But we actually do have power. We can make a difference by making our voice heard. Flood the emails and voicemails of your representatives. If they want to be re-elected, they will listen to their constituents. If enough of us do it, it will make a difference.

There are some very easy sites to finding your representatives. One I like is www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Guilty over Andrew's lack of pictures

2009-07-15T21:53:00.003-04:00

Where has the week gone? The older I get, the faster time passes by. This has beem a very busy week. We finished up with Jacob's tennis lessons Tuesday, I started my tennis lessons, lots of errands and outings and doctor appointments this week. In addition, we are preparing for our house guests, my dad and Francine, to arrive on Friday. So this week has been busier than normal.

Last night I starting feeling so guilty over the fact that I have no professional pictures of Andrew. By this point, I had 2 or 3 sessions with Jacob and Zachary. I really don't like studio pictures...I just don't really like the posed pictures too much. My kids are always AWFUL in a picture studio. Both Jacob and Zachary used to scream in the studios. When the proofs come back, I'm always upset with how they turned out due to my kids' lack of cooperation. I finally wised up and cut out the studio pics. So here I am with Andrew and no pictures except the random pictures I take of him.

The boys love to go on picnics. In fact, I saved a piece of paper from Jacob's old preschool where he listed what he loves about mommy and one of the things he listed was "mommy takes me on picnics". So I decided to take all the boys to the JMU Arboretum today. We would be able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone...have a fun outing and take some pictures of Andrew. I told Jacob and Zachary that I needed photographer helpers to get to him to smile and help me with props. So they were excited about their jobs. However, afterwards, Jacob said being a helper wasn't as fun as he thought it would be. That is only because I wouldn't let him hold the camera. We were next to a pond. I kept picturing my camera floating in that water.

The picnic was really nice. We had never been to the Arboretum and had been curious. Since it is so close, it was easy for us to check it out today. Zachary lives for food, so he was pumped. Jacob loves the woods, so he was excited to explore the trails. It was really neat because there were lots of trails that were filled with all kinds of flowers and trees. Bridges were plentiful, which gave the boys much excitement! The highlight was the pond where they watched the fish and turtles.

At one point the wind blew really hard and with it went Zachary's plate. I said, "Gosh, Zachary!" as I watched his food blowing around. Zachary's reply was, "I didn't do it! God did it!" I couldn't help but smile because he said it so matter of factly. He later went on to tell me that he knows why God gave us fingers (random thoughts by Zachary)...so that we could balance things in our hands.

I remember a friend once saying summertime was her favorite time to be a mom and I would have to agree!

The sport of choice for now

2009-07-13T14:26:00.002-04:00

Jacob is nearing the end of his tennis clinic and has a new sport to love. Santa brought the boys tennis rackets for Christmas and Jacob had actually been saving his money to buy one. So now he is getting to put it to use. I'm glad he was able to do this clinic to get some basics down. I hope one day the boys will want to play tennis with me. Some wise moms of boys once told me

there are 2 ways to your boys hearts...good food and sports. So we'll see!

I have taken lessons a few times and never seem to be able to finish up because of the kids. So I'm starting again this week. Once I finish this round of lessons, hopefully, I will be able to participate in the league play in the fall. Jacob was so excited for me to get to play. Zachary is jealous. He said it isn't fair that everyone gets to play but him.

Don't you just love Jacob's rooster tail on his hair? Poor guy has been growing out his buzz cut since February! We are almost there. Now it is in that state where you just can't do anything with it but let it be!

The boys are counting down the days, literally, until Paw-Paw and Cee-Cee (my dad and Francine) come. They are arriving Friday! Jacob wakes up each morning telling me how many days we have left now. Both boys love to hear Paw-Paw tell them stories. He has the greatest animal adventure stories from his hunting trips and the boys are captivated by them!

HAPPY MONDAY!!!!!

Just so you would believe me

2009-07-09T15:20:00.005-04:00

Zachary asleep under his chair

He heard a faint sound...

And he is awake!

Well, against my better judgment I decided to open Zachary's door. I couldn't resist taking pictures. He was asleep on the floor under his chair. I took a picture, his leg twitched, I knew he heard that faint sound. All the sudden he spastically tried to get out from under his chair. He looked like a crazy guy. He was so confused. Then he saw me and said, "Mommy, you scared me half to death."

Zach said, "I was trying to be a turtle, but then I fell asleep. I was soooo lazy."

Rest time is over!