Outside Time

Well, we are taking advantage of the beautiful weather before it disappears for several months! Hopefully by next summer our trees will provide a little bit of shade and prolong the time we can spend outdoors. Here's a bit of what we've been up to around here:


Rich and Xander digging a hole for our new Purple Plum tree. Both of the big boys LOVE to help us out whenever they can, especially if it involves shovels...

Keegan is "helping" me clean off the porch. Gotta enjoy a clean porch while we can before monsoon season hits!

Rich is preparing the "mud pit". Every kid needs a place to play in the mud, right?!?!? I know I spent many childhood hours just digging in the mud. Eventually, they can even experiment with trying to grow things. Hopefully they inherited gardening skills from dad and not me...

I am once again trying to prove that my thumb isn't completely black. It's been three weeks and I haven't managed to kill these beautiful plants - yet!
Sandbox time!

Playing "driving to the grocery store"! Xander insists on taking a grocery list!

Anticipating...

It's just what this made us think of...

My little man LOVES his fruit "moothies"!

Music Men

We love having the boys in with us as we "sing to Jesus" on Sunday mornings! It is amazing to see how much they pick up! They are so creative and enthusiastic as they seek to emulate what they see!

Whenever I put on music, they both run into the family room, grab the guitar and mic and get up on the coffee table! They especially love to rock out to Boyz in the Sink (gotta love those Veggie Tales) or "Caden's Daddy" songs from the Treasure the Word cd. Most of all, I love it when Alexander makes up his own impromptu worship songs.

Happy Eight!

Eight years ago, I married my best friend! It hasn't been an easy, downhill coast. But I can say now, looking back, that the uphill climb of growing together has been quite an adventure and well worth the effort! God's grace has been so evident as we have learned to let go of our own selfishness and instead look to love and serve the other! And besides, nothing worth having comes easy, right?!?!

We are taking a wonderful parenting class and the last couple of weeks has focused on the strengths that each of us bring into our marriage and family. Although none of this comes as a huge surprise, it has been so exciting to freshly embrace Rich's unique strengths and recognize how God has used him in my life and the lives of our boys! We are very much opposites in so many ways and yet it seems that we are such a good blend in balancing each other out and prodding the other to be all God has called us to be.

Jolly Giant!

Treyton is certianly my jolly (thankfully not green) giant! He continues to surpass where his brothers were at this age in both height and weight. His little developing personality is simply delightful. He has been trying to sit up for the last several weeks. It's so cute to see him straining in his carseat to try and sit up and look around. He is mesmorized with his brothers and ready to join the party! My little Trey is also cooing and smiling up a storm. We love to just sit and talk and smile at eachother. It's amazing how with each baby my love grows! Not only do I love this new little one fiercely, but I also love my bigger boys more as well!

Although daytime sleep has been regular for a while, night time sleeping really didn't start to set in until we moved him to the nursery about 2 weeks ago. He is a NOISY sleeper and once mommy couldn't hear all of his grunts and snorts, we all starting sleeping much better. He's so noisy, that one of his nicknames is "Snort". He now regularly has a 4.5-6.5 hour stretch and usually only wakes me up once at night to eat!

Here are his stats:

Treyton (14lbs; 24in)

Keegan (13lbs; 23.25in)

Xander (13lbs/8oz; 23in)

thankful!

thankful for my mother and mother-in-law!

thankful to be surrounded by a community of wonderful mothers!

thankful and completely thrilled to be a mother to three precious little boys!

Like Father, Like Son!

A son has found the baseball hat love that his father discovered at a similar age!!! It hasn't quite grown to obsessive proportions... yet! I can get him to remove the hat to eat, sleep, bathe, etc... :)