Fruitful Pursuit!

What a wonderful, incredibly fruitful year it has been! As I mentioned last fall, Alexander started Cubbies! It has been so much fun to watch him grow in his understanding and love for God over the last several months.

I cannot say enough about this ministry! The systematic approach has helped keep me consistent and the age appropriate content has helped me to communicate God's love and the glorious gospel in a way that my precious little three year old can understand. Just 3 months ago I felt frustrated in my attempts to communicate the gospel to him in a way that he can understand, but in that short period of time, his understanding has grown by leaps and bounds. And better than mere intellectual understanding of who God is, Xander LOVES God and regularly goes outside to talk to God -because he insists that God can hear him better out there! :) So while there is still much he doesn't yet comprehend, I am so encouraged by his growing understanding of who God is and how much God loves him! In faith, I'm looking forward to the day that he responds to God's wonderful call on his life!

This last weekend was the final night of Cubbies and Alexander was proud to be able to participate in a short program showcasing some of the songs they had learned this year.

He was especially excited that Oma and Opa could make it to his program.

After a couple months of cautiously waving, he has grown really fond of giving "BIG" Cubbie bear hugs! He is going to miss him this summer. A much braver little brother had no inhibitions during his first encounter with Cubbie. It is so much fun to watch personalities grow in different ways.

More family...

The youngest cousins both made a trip back to visit Omama and Opapa! Mom and I had so much fun joining Bethy and Evangeline on a visit to the great-grandparents and Evie!

Bethy and Evie chillin' on the couch w/ the two babies!

Evangeline LOVES her mommy and always lights up whenever she was around. Aren't they so cute!
The two cousins on their way to church followed up with their first visit to Clyde's! Even if they weren't to cognizant of the surroundings or food, the rest of us sure enjoyed it!

Mom and I ended up spending part of two different days down in DC, thanks to missing our flight home (don't ask). We introduced Treyton to the wonderful world of art. Neither of us had been to the National Portrait Gallery and loved seeing the Presidential portrait collection. On Wednesday, we caught a tour at the Museum of Modern Art. Talk about being inspired to explore creating art with my kids! I look forward to the Pollock-esque creations that will be produced here. Or who knows, maybe one of my boys will get paid lots of money for his own variation of "white on white" paintings!

Family Times

It's been a busy couple of weeks with family. Rich's parents came out to meet Treyton. The only downer about their trip was that Xander caught pink eye AGAIN while they were here, so we needed to stick closer to home than we had planned. (Come on, what are the chances of having three seperate incidences of pink eye in 2.5 months???)

It was so nice to have two extra sets of arms. While they had cuddle time with Trey, I was able to have special time with each of my bigger boys, especially with Keegan! We are all so thankful that they were able to come out and visit!

Mima playing with Keegan!

Alexander and Keegan "helping" Daddy and Pa w/ the drainage project!

Keegan playing peek-a-boo w/ Mima and Pa during dinner one night. :)

Bad Days, A Good Thing?

YES, YES, YES!!! I can't believe I'm writing this, but it is true. Bad days help me to recognize my own weakness and learn more to rely on God's strength.

God has been so good to me, to remind me once again that I need Him. I am definitely not all-sufficient. Lack of sleep, crazy hormones and three children under the age of three have all been used to remind me of this truth. In fact, I think the theme for the last 10 months of so has been that "HIS strength is made perfect in my weakness." I am learning with increasing frequency that I must embrace this truth. When I do, my faith grows and God is glorified!

When I asked you all to not hold me to my statement that three was easier than two, I meant it. Little did I know that at the 4 week mark, the lack of sleep would catch up with me. Rich helped me to slow down and not try to pick everything back up again as I was trying to do. There are days where I have lots of energy and I thank God for those wonderful times when things actually get done, but also some days when I crash. So I'm thankful to have a husband who keeps me grounded instead of swinging from one extreme to the other. God certainly knew what he was doing when he gave me Rich!

The End of an Era

Hello warm 90 degree weather, goodbye hair... After much discussion, Rich finally convinced me to give the boys summer cuts. sniff, sniff.

I adored Keegans mop of golden hair and praying that I can have it back again. Hair grows back, right? Reassure me, please. This was only his second big cut. It hasn't been short since I cut it back when he was only 4 months old. Yes, my son needed a haircut at 4 months old. We are hair farmers here and our boys are no different...

Alexander was thrilled to get a cut like Dad's and was quite eager for Keegan to join the club as well. Here's a before and after. And no, Treyton missed out on the big cut. He has less hair than Keegan had, so hopefully I can hold out longer with him!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sad, but true.

Perspective

Since Saturday, Treyton, Mom and I have been back in Virginia visiting my grandparents and two sisters. It has been so much fun to watch my Oma hold her two newest grandbabies! But I'm already missing the boys and hubby that I left behind.

The break from caring for my home and three little boys though has provided me time to step back and take stock. God has been so faithful to show me areas where I can love Rich more and ways that I need to step-up and be more consistent in my parenting. I am excited to return to the rest of my family with renewed energy (definitely God-given since I'm still not getting enough sleep) and a desire to serve them better!

Roar!

We went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History, formally known as the Mesa Southwest Museum. I have many fond memories of visiting there as a child, so it was a treat to be able to take my brood. God was so faithful, because I had been having a really hard week (4 weeks of very little sleep had finally caught up with me) and there wasn't a way to back out since I had organized the field trip and we needed a minimum of 10 people for the homeschool discount and we were barely there. I had hoped that my mom could go with me to help with the boys, but she needed to work. My other attempts to find some help didn't work out either. So I was just a bit nervous to attempt a museum with a curious 3.5 yo, a wild child 20 month old and a frequently nursing 4 weekold. Thankfully, God's grace was there and all three boys behaved beautifully and we had a delightful trip.

Xander wasn't too scared of the dinosaurs. We prepped him beforehand reminding him that all of the dinosaurs were dead and what we would be seeing were just bones or replica's (aka really BIG toys!). He loves dinosaurs, but based on our previous experience with the large animals and animal noises at the Smithsonian, we decided to prep him just in case. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

They also have an area where you can pan for gold. As an adult, it was readily apparent that the "gold specks" were fake, but I remember being so convinced as a child that it was real that I even planned out what I would "buy" with the money I made from selling my gold pieces... ok, I'm gullible! Xander was really too young to even understand the concept of panning for gold, but he sure had fun playing in the water.

Keegan also enjoyed the break from the stroller!