Graduation Day is here...

 So last week, my little Braden had his preschool graduation.  It was such a bittersweet day for this momma.  I'm so proud of him and he is growing so fast and has turned into such a sweet, kind, caring, compassionate, imaginative, funny little boy and yet, I still feel like he is my baby, even though he turns 5 in just a few weeks!!!  So this Graduation Day was indeed hard for me as I realized this is the first of hopefully many other graduation ceremonies we will attend for him over the next 18 plus years.  As he walked down the aisle in his cap and gown with this huge smile on his face, so proud of himself, my heart too was so proud of him.  I also wanted to scoop him up and make this parenting process slow down just for a bit.  I mean aren't we all grooming our babies to eventually let them fly on their own someday?  So isn't this the first step????  I'm just not sure I was ready for all of it to pass so quickly.  As I've said before, for us stay-at-home momma, the days sometimes seem to pass so slowly and the years seem to fly.  Today was one of those moments that I realized how quickly time is flying.   So thankful to have the slow summer days ahead to spend some time with these two little boys...

The Graduate - 

Brothers -

Proud Grandparents-

 And proud parents -

So thankful for Ms. Julie and Ms. Lisa who were willing to pour into Braden's life this year and grow his heart -

Braden and his best buddies, some of these little boys have been with Braden since they were 2.  They are forever fighting bad guys and wrestling together. Love the imagination and innocence of four year olds -

 My sweet boys on their last day of mother's-day-out -

Mother's Day...

When Braden was just six days old, I sat in the pediatricians office, holding this tiny baby  and the nurse looked at me and said "being a mother is the hardest job you will ever love."  Almost 5 years later, I have reflected back on that moment countless times and I am amazed at how true those words are...this job is hard, really, really hard, but I have never loved like I do now that I know the joys of being a mother!  And I certainly appreciate my own mother so much more now that I have walked in her shoes.  I love you Braden and Asher! I am so thankful that I get to call myself "mommy" thanks to these two!  What an amazing blessing this journey has been for me...one that has grown my faith, brought me to my knees, caused many a tear, and exceeded my every joy!

Easter Season

I love the Easter season, in fact just the other day I was telling Braden that it might just be my favorite holiday. I love that it is in the spring, when new life grows and trees blossom and the long winter days fade away into long warm nights, where little ones can play outside until bedtime. But most importantly, I love the meaning of Easter. I love that as believers we get to celebrate the amazing love that Christ has bestowed upon us. I love that we celebrate grace, unending grace, undeserving grace, unconditional grace. I love that Easter brings hope...powerful and real hope, hope that is touchable and tangible. I love that during this Lenten season that we celebrate Life, both eternal life and Resurrected Life. With every passing year, I find myself filled with gratitude for what was done for me through a Man who loved me beyond words when I was so undeserving. I don't know about you, but often times at the end of the day when the house is quiet and the boys are tucked beneath blankets in their beds and I've had a few moments to reflect back on my day and how chaotic it was and how many times my tone of voice was a little too harsh with my kids, or how many times I failed to show compassion when one of my boys hurt themselves for the umpteenth time that day, or how I chose to use words that were biting instead of life giving, or how I chose to embrace stress instead of gratitude, it's in those moments that I feel the most undeserving. The Easter season reminds me that we are all undeserving and so was Christ. And yet He loves me...deeply....I am still humbled by that. This Easter season was particularly special in our home because we had the privilege of praying with Braden to accept Christ! On that day, we had just finished making a little Easter craft that I found on Pintrest -
where we planted a bunch of grass seed, made three wooden crosses and even an empty tomb on "Calvary." As we finished up the project, Braden began asking about why there were three crosses instead of just one for Jesus. We went on to explain about the two men and about how one went to Heaven with Christ because he confessed his sin and sought forgiveness and asked to be with Jesus in eternity and the other went to Hell. Well this opened a whole conversation about sin and Heaven and Hell and what it means to ask Jesus to live in our hearts. Braden came up to us a few minutes after this passed and said "I want to ask Jesus to live in my heart." We then hear him on his own with his head bowed, praying to God, those sweet words of surrender. He then asked both of us to pray with him and as we prayed over him and for him, my heart was overcome with joy as I realized that Braden really got it. He on his 4 year old level, understood that his heart was yucky and that the only way to make it right was to ask Jesus to come and live in it and help make him like Him! Sweet, sweet moments for sure!!! The rest of our Lenten season was spent doing all the fun Easter things that we all did as children growing up...and it sure is fun to relive all of that through my own kiddos. Here are some highlights from the past month...

This picture, makes me laugh, this is a close up of the tomb...as you can see, the only Jesus we had was a Little People, and not just any Little People, it is one with a mustache and a cowboy hat.

Braden, before his Easter Egg Hunt at my parent's clubhouse -
And Asher, looking so grown up -
A brother's shot -
Meeting the Easter Bunny -
We made some fun Easter goodies -
We unsuccessfully tried to potty train...which ps...when in doubt, always wear a helmet -
We watched the grass finally grow on our tomb -
On Easter Sunday, we may have indulged in a little too much chocolate -
But still somehow made it to church on time -
We attempted a family Easter shot, but Asher thought it was more funny to pinch my face -
But were able to get a "sisters" shot -
We went to my parents for Easter lunch where we had some sweet time with my family -
We ate some crazy good food, with a crazy amount of desserts -
All in all, a wonderful Easter with those I love most.

Why is it...

That this little friend of mine likes to wake between 5:15 and 6am every morning...
and this little friend of mine could snooze till 8am or so...
and the bigger question is, how are they ever supposed to share a room when, this little friend of mine likes to party in his crib till the late hours of the night...
and this little friend of mine is out like a light within a matter of minutes after being put to bed...

I feel like once they start to share a room, there will be a lot of this going on, instead of sleeping...
and some of this, where someone is screaming at the delight of the other...
and I am confident that there will be some of this, where someone gets tackled...
but in the end, I hope these little friends of mine will be best buds their whole life long, because they sure do love each other...
oh and ps...please start sending prayers our way, because they will hopefully be sharing a room this summer!

Tornado Warnings, Brotherly Love and Such

So spring is here...well almost here and I must say that I am more then ready. We've had a very mild winter, but still, I'm ready for warm temperatures where little toes can come out from under socks, where coats don't have to be shoved underneath the belts of a carseat and where we can play outside in the daylight well after the dinner hour. Unfortunately, where we live, the spring season often brings the threat of tornadoes and if you live in this house, that is quite the buzz word around here these days. It seems that ever since Braden experienced the shrilling sounds of the tornado sirens one stormy afternoon a few weeks ago at school, he has been TERRIFIED of them. There have been many a night where I've had to go comfort him in the middle of the night when he wakes up in a nightmare, tormented by the thoughts of a tornado. Or many other nights where I've prayed with him, over him and for him before bed that his little mind would be filled with peace and not with fear. Other nights, he has slept with his Bible so that he can recall God's word which he has memorized to "fear not for I am with you," or "whenever I am afraid I will trust in You Lord." But still he is afraid. These fears are real, very real and it is hard for this momma to find ways to bring him real comfort. So I continue to pray that the God of Peace will bring him comfort that only He can give and thankfully I can see God's hand at work!!! Two days ago, the whole southeast was hit with numerous tornadoes and as the day drug on and I realized that he and Asher and I would have to find our safe place in our home and wait out the storms, I began to get nervous that Braden would crumble under the fear. When the skies started to darken and I knew we had to seek shelter, I was amazed at how well Braden did. He was so calm and started grabbing all the things we would "need" to get us through the tornadoes. So away we went to our closet with goldfish, water cups, cars, racetracks, crayons, markers, coloring books, previous art projects, costumes and numerous other things. But, we waited the storms out by drawing pictures of hail and tornadoes and eating pounds and pounds of goldfish. On a side note...I can't tell you the number of times I've been thankful for goldfish over the years. Anyway, about 30 minutes later, we arose from the storm to find a whole lot of hail and broken tree limbs, but a house intact and a brave little boy who somehow feels a bit less scared about tornadoes now. We were blessed to have no damage unlike so many others who were less fortunate. So here are my two little boys braving out the storm -

Of course when the skies got really bad, they got to sit in the closet which was extra fun in their opinions, but here they are in the hallway -
Here are the boys earlier this week...Braden loves to climb in Asher's crib in the mornings. I walked in the other day and found them sitting like this and I heard Asher say "I wuv you Bray Bray." Asher has become so cuddly and affectionate lately and I love to hear him tell us that he loves us. So sweet to see these boys really loving each other...oh how my heart prays for this for them daily -
And then the love turned into wrestle mania -
And this picture just makes me laugh...Braden earned his final sticker on his sticker chart this week and as a result we all got to go see The Lorax at the movie theater this weekend. This was Asher's first movie and to our surprise he did awesome and seemed to love the whole experience...thanks to once again...a LOT of goldfish crackers!!!!!
That's all for now!!!!! Looking forward to the time change this weekend...yet another sign that spring is almost here and that we survived the winter :)

We are still alive

So my blog has been sad, really sad lately. I feel like I've let my blog and my journal go the past few months as we were moving and celebrating all the holidays and just getting settled in our new house and that makes me sad. I've been extra tired from all the chaos and so I put my blog and journal on the back burner to collapse on the couch with Austin in the evenings. Anyway, I feel like so much of the life I love with my boys and my family are things I want to remember forever which is why I keep a journal and this blog, so with that being said, here goes at trying to start all over again in keeping up with our lives. For today, I'm not gonna even attempt to go back and recap what the past few months looked like...for now, I'll just post some pictures of my boys as they are getting so very big!!!

The boys laughing at who knows what...but this picture makes me smile...there is no better sound then the laughter of a child -
My baby, looking so very grown up and serious -
In case you are wondering what we have been up to lately...it's a whole lot of costumes. In fact, one might think that we celebrate Halloween all hours of the day around my house because I can guarantee if you were to show up at my house on any given day, you would find one of my boys in costume...mainly Braden. He literally wears a costume or "uniform" as he calls it from 7am until he goes to bed at night. Here the boys are playing pirates -
Asher in pumpkin costume and Braden in SWAT team costume -
Braden in his SWAT team costume -
Braden in police costume and Asher in his birthday suit (his favorite costume these days) -
So as you can see, we've been playing in costume a lot these days...but the one thing we have not been doing is potty training and I don't think it's anywhere close. Asher just likes to run around in Braden's underwear and I think he looks pretty stinkin' cute -

It's moving week...

Oh my goodness...it is upon us...moving week has arrived and wow is my house ever messy! We've known about this move for a few months now and I started packing a few weeks ago (a box here and there), but somehow it is crunch time. Packing with two little ones plus a wild, wild puppy has been quite interesting. Braden desperately wants to help and has been all about the box packing. Asher on the other hand just wants to take out the stuff that I put in or he wants to stand by the boxes and color them with markers...which usually means markers on him, the box, the walls, the floors, Hank, me, you name it and he colors it. And then there is the fighting dynamic...one wants to put something in the box, then the other one wants to put something in and then they start fighting over who puts what in, all the while Hank is biting the box or tearing off the tape that I just used to tape up the box. And then there is the fun stuff like packing up something that you realize you need. So then you get to undo the boxes you've already packed and start all over again. However, in the midst of the chaos, I have A LOT to be thankful for. Thankful that we have 2 year renters moving into our current house, thankful that my parents have graciously offered to house us for the next month, thankful that we have a beautiful new house to move into on December 5th and thankful that Austin's parents have offered to take Hank while we live with my parents for the next few weeks. And, despite all the chaos, I have had some really enjoyable moments with my little ones...we've found ways to be really creative and have fun despite all the moving chaos. Just feeling a little bittersweet about leaving our house. This is mine and Austin's first home, the first place I brought my babies home and in some ways I feel like we will look back on this house and remember these years, in this house as being some of the best in our life. My boys were so young here and we have literally spent the days playing away in this house...truly some sweet moments for me as a stay-at-home momma! Anyway, here are some pictures of our week -

Jumping on bubble wrap. Never heard so much laughing from the boys, apparently the bubble popping sound is hilarious when you are 2 and 4 years old-
Asher playing with the bubble wrap -
One day, I arranged the boxes so it made a "racetrack" according to Braden. The boys took turns racing through the racetrack. We even got out construction paper and made red and green lights. The boys loved this and it was so fun to watch them race -
Asher going under the bridge...and yes, my children wear costumes...A LOT -


So one morning I was trying to pack the kitchen and wasn't getting very far so I drew a road on the packing paper and Braden spent the next 45 minutes driving all his cars on the road. Who knew packing paper could be so fun -
And while Braden was driving cars, Asher (my art obsessed child) was busy drawing on my box -
Today, I piled all the blankets, sheets and pillows out of my closets and let the boys jump from the bed into a huge pillow pile before I loaded all the linens into a box. They loved it!!! Anyway, all in all it's been a chaotic, but very sweet week with my little boys. We've had a lot of days where we've stayed in our pj's all day long. I have to admit that it's been nice to slow down and be with the boys even if it did get really wild around here at some moments.