365 Project | Week 19

Woo-hoo, it's official! I am officially a stay-at-home mommy. As one mommy-friend so wisely put it, "Now the real work begins!" :) Chris took Thursday and Friday off as well, so this week actually felt a good bit more like vacation than anything else. We'll be getting into the mommy and kids groove this upcoming week--would greatly appreciate your prayers. We're all super excited, but it's definitely a whole new routine for all of us. :) A very good thing, but completely different. As Peter put it, "It seems like there's going to be 100's and 100's of Saturdays!" Mommy's view is slightly different. ;)

Day 127. What does Sunday afternoon look like at our house? Quiet time for the big kids, nap time for Matthew and (usually) Daddy, and blog time for Mommy. :)

Day 128. Ride 'em, cowboys! Our living room turned corral. The kids were having fun, although I will admit that Matthew was somewhat noticeably distressed in this picture because his 2-year-old sense of justice was violated by the fact that Peter was 1/2-inch farther back than Matthew thought he ought to be. ;)

Day 129. Mommy's bookworm ... :)

Day 130. So thankful for the coworkers the Lord blessed me with these last two years.

Day 131. The last day of school, Mommy's last day of work, and our anniversary, and no, there's no cute pictures of the two of us together. Sorry. :) We did, however, enjoy a very nice, relaxing day. Chris and the boys used his homemade plow to prepare the yard for grass seed, and Mommy and Hannah went shopping for a cute, modest swimsuit. It was a huge blessing to see the Lord answer prayer so specifically! The very suit I had unsuccessfully tried to order online earlier in the week was hanging (in my size) on a lonely rack in the very last store we walked through as we were returning to the van after an hour of unprofitable shopping. The Lord is so good and cares about even these smallest details.

Day 132. We are so thankful for our phenomenal babysitter by the name of Miss Beth. :) What a blessing to be able to enjoy an evening together and know the kids are safe and having a great time. You know you have a good one when your kids ask you when you're going on another date so that Miss Beth can come again. ;)

Day 133.  Hannah's birthday, and another pretty normal day. However, the highlight was most definitely the "hayride," compliments of Daddy's grass planting endeavours. :)

New adventures await! :)

Making Waves

We enjoyed the blessing of some pool time at a picnic hosted by Chris' manager this weekend. What fun! It was the first time our kids have ever been in a body of water larger than a kiddie pool or the bathtub, so it was definitely great cause for excitement. :o)


Huge personal blessing to Mommy--Hannah and Peter took to the water like fish!

Only one other family had young children, and since they also happen to be friends from church, it just made it all that much more fun. :o) The torpedo (A.K.A. Peter's "airplane") was a HUGE hit with all of the kids.Peter and Ella both navigated along the walls a good bit ...

But Hannah and Isaac were both tall enough to stand in the shallow end, so they really made full use of the water.

Yep. Peter was having fun. :o)

The intertube let everybody feel comfortable away from the wall ...

Shall we say "Daddy-powered tubing"??? :o)

So what about Matthew? Well, . . . his opinion of the water started out rather low.

"Haven't you figured out yet that I don't want to be in here? It's COLD."

"Finally. That took way too long."

However, after sitting on the edge and splashing for 15 minutes while the other kids were waiting for their dinners to digest, he started to decide that the water wasn't such a bad place to be after all.

Particularly since there was a ball available ...

And once he decided to hop in, Hannah thoroughly enjoyed pushing him around!

And there we go ... the smile returns!! What a fun afternoon!

Thanks so much Mr. and Mrs. W!

Bubble Fun!

We love the simple fun of blowing bubbles! :o)

I am SO thankful for the time I've been able to have off work to enjoy our little ones . . . they are growing up faster than we could have possibly imagined! Lord willing, some day I'll be able to stay home with them all day, every day. For now though we're thankful for the wonderful care and teaching they receive while I'm at work, and we're very thankful my position is part-time. I return on Wednesday. I'm so thankful to know I'll have His grace and strength for that day.

Down with the dust bunnies!

The reign of the dust bunnies in Chris' office came to an abrupt and sudden end last evening. After over seven years of service, his office mate Andrew has taken a new job. Therefore, Chris now wears the title of Senior Network Engineer. One perk of the increased responsibilities is a larger desk. However, before taking advantage of that, the office needed a good cleaning.

So after dinner, we gathered some toys and cleaning supplies and headed over to the office. The kids did great! They doodled around and had fun with a box of conference gadgets we found stored on one of the shelves.

The custodial crew was a bit suprised to find a little guy playing ball in the hallway though.

Three hours and three large trash bags later, things were in tip top shape!

A suggestion for those with kids--if you want to sleep in a bit in the morning, keep everyone up till midnight! Thankfully our two slept in till after 9:00 this morning!