Lots of run on sentences and I used the word "excited" a lot. And I said "like" a lot. You have been forewarned!

Josh and I went to Maine. It was beautiful. Basically I want to move there. Josh says no. Or, he says...maybe, but we don't have jobs. Details, details. We also went to Boston for the day. I also want to move there, but we'd have to live in a box....when here in the midwest we can actually own property. Its a no-brainer I guess, but oh man...its beautiful out there. We took a sunset sail in Portland on our last night there...it was amazing! Right up my alley. We sat next to a couple who were just our age from Boston. They had just gotten engaged, were renting an apartment and said they were years away from having kids. Funny how lives can be so different. :)

We are still living with Josh's parents. Its really going very well. I mean, I guess I'm speaking for myself here, but I think its going ok. :) We looked at three houses on Saturday. We weren't excited about any of them. I'm going to see a house on Wednesday morning that screams PROJECT...and I'm weirdly excited about it. Its an older home and listed WAY below what we are pre-approved for. I'm kind of getting really excited about the idea of living below our means. Like this would be well below our means. Its appealing. I don't need huge. I need cozy and safe. This house might be a good fit...but you would have to bear with us as we updated and renovated. It could be an adventure :) We'll see what I think after I actually step foot inside....I'll let ya know!

Owen is doing well. Still loving preschool....spends most of his free time running around trying to be a jedi knight, a transformer, or batman. We are really into superheroes over here. He is a true boy. Goodness.

Wesley is crazy as always. He refuses to walk, but he can. He just won't. Whatever. He's taken screaming to new levels and I'm not sure what to do about it. Yes. I have a screamer. God help me. He is also cutting his two top front teeth. That could be the reason for some of the screaming. Sheesh. We love him. He's crazy. The end.

This next weekend we are heading to Grace College for homecoming and staying with our friends The Knoops for a bonfire! A whole bunch of our friends are coming and I'm so excited to get our kids together! What fun. Loved my college. Loved my college years. Loved my friends there...can't wait to go back and relive some of it!

Stay tuned for trick or treat pictures! Happy Fall!

"THIS for THAT"

Our church just completed a building project. Well, half a building project. We have a new sanctuary. It was desperately needed. Prior to the opening of the new sanctuary, people were crunched and crammed into the old sanctuary, and we had overflow....where our family would end up most weeks because we just couldn't get to church early enough to make it into the regular sanctuary. Most Sunday's overflow would become too full and there would be standing room only. More than once I decided to just go work in the nursery (because they are always desperate for workers anyways) instead of standing in overflow...or because I felt guilty....I never knew who was leaving overflow because I was sitting in a seat instead of them...what if that person didn't know Jesus? What if they really, REALLY needed to be there...I couldn't live with the guilt :) Anyways, I digress. We needed a new sanctuary. We got one. (nice how that works right? we needed something, we got it. Somehow life doesn't always work that way...this time it did. Its nice) Right now there are major renovations going on in our old building/sanctuary to create a new children's wing...which is also desperately needed.

Anyways, the theme that our pastor's have been trying to communicate since we've had the privilege of being in our new building (that seats 1800 people, has luxurious seating and ample space in the atrium, hallways, aisles...etc!) is...THIS, for THAT. Meaning....lets keep our perspective here....we have this great new building and the awesome opportunity to constantly be surrounded by good teaching and people who love Jesus...SO THAT we can do a better job of bringing Christ to the nations...sharing Jesus with those who do not have Him. THIS for THAT. I love it. It reminds me to be very careful lest I soak in all the goodness that has been handed to me and think that I'm deserving and not responsible to do anything with it. Oh man. We are so responsible.

I want to implement this perspective heavily in my own life. THIS struggle, for THAT move towards holiness. THIS blessing so that I/we may bless THAT person. Whatever has been given to us...its always leads to something else. THIS for THAT.

When we were trying to selling our house and realizing how terribly upside down we would be, I struggled with how we immediately felt like we didn't deserve to be stuck where we were. Like living in the house we were living in was so completely unacceptable....we were better than this, our neighborhood had taken a nose dive and OUR children had no business being brought up in a area like we were in. Man. When did I become such a SNOB!? :) Ha. I tell ya, I really really wrestled until God brought me to a place where I was completely happy to stay in our little home on the west-side of Indianapolis. Where our neighbors blasted loud gangster rap that shook our walls and teenagers walked the streets at nights looking like they were up to no good. I had to take a good look at my heart. Who am I to know the mind of God? Who am I to question what he has for my life? What if our neighborhood to be our mission field? Maybe. And I tell you honestly that if God asked us to stay there for the rest of our lives, I would have been peaceful about it. True story. However, he made a way for us to get out. Barely :) But we did get out. And now, when I think about what we CAN have....a safe neighborhood, a much bigger/better house, good schools...neighbors that do NOT blast gangster rap :) You get the idea. I think...man, I really want all of this prosperity to be put to good use. THIS for THAT Lord. Your blessing to us in exchange for YOUR glory! I'm ok with having good stuff if we can use it to bless others. I'm praying that God will keep our family sensitive to know how we can use our lives to serve others. I'm not that good at seeing it. To date, I have removed myself from a consistent situation I had to share Jesus. I am now a stay at home mom with my children. I attend church, I go to bible study, we attend a small group, my best friends know and love the Lord...you get the picture. I felt like at least when I was working I had the opportunity to be around people that I could love on for Jesus. And now, I'm just praying that I will be wise enough to see where Jesus would have me to go from here. Vision trips? Doing more to support or missionaries? Standing on the street corner telling others about Jesus!? :) I don't know, but I know it has to be something.

THIS for THAT Jesus! I want to know you more :)

Sugar Free?

So, about two weeks ago I decided that my life was not chaotic enough. It wasn't enough that I am currently without my own home, or raising two rambunctious boys, or waiting for my husband rejoin me in life (i.e.: finish soccer season which demands 90% of his time)....I decided it would be great to make myself somewhat miserable and give up sugar for 30 days. Why? Because my friend Missy did it awhile ago and blogged about it...and I thought...hmm...maybe I should do that. And then, well...then...my idol, The Pioneer Woman did it. Ok, deal sealed. I needed to try it. So, Monday, Sept. 26, was my first day being "sugar free". And I'm talking about actual sugar here...like, the white stuff. The stuff that I live for in my favorite drink...sweet tea. In theory, I understand that nearly all food is actually sugar. Bread? Sugar. Pasta? Sugar. Everything I enjoy? SUGAR! But, I doubt that I have it in me to give up all carbs for 30 days. So, I'm on day 15 of attempting to be sugar free. I haven't been perfect. In fact, I admit that I took a cheat day on Saturday. I hadn't planned on cheating, but I did...and its over, and I'm moving on :)

This is what I've learned. 1. I consume too much sugar. (earth shattering, right?) 2. I like sugar 3. Sugar makes things taste better 4. I can do this 5. I can return to minimum-moderate sugar consumption and live a happy life. 6. I wish I enjoyed water. I just don't. It doesn't taste good to me, but its what I've been living on.

I have been FIFTEEN days without a sweet tea. I can't believe that. I really, really can't. I live for sweet tea.

I've lost 3.5 lbs and if I hadn't been so blasted sick this last week (strep throat)...then I'm sure I would notice a difference in how I felt. I can at least say that I have a bit more energy.

All that being said, I have no desire to attempt to live my life completely without sugar...however, I do plan to be MUCH more moderate. Like having one cheat day a week. Or being bad would be considered something like having 2-3 sweet teas in a week. NOT, 2-3 sweet teas in a day! :)

That's all. Also, Josh and I are taking a small vacation next week to Maine. It is unlikely that I will see this through to 30 days because...lets be honest, I'm going to want some kind of dessert with my honey while I'm on vacation. That's ok. I've learned a lot through this. I can do better. I will do better. The end. :)

Wesley, you are ONE!

Well Child Check up- 10.12.11

Stats:

Weight- 20 lbs (ok, on the scale it said 19 lbs, 15 3/4 oz! We are calling this 20 lbs since you had socks and a diaper on! :)

Length- 39 inches (I'm rounding up!)

HC- 46 inches

Dr. Pedersen said you were doing wonderful. She gave me little to no grief about putting you on cows milk when I did (shew) and today we did the flu shot and chicken pox vaccine but we are holding off on MMR until 15 months. Maybe longer. I haven't completely decided yet.

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Sweet baby boy. How is it possible that a year has come and gone already?! I don't quite know how to wrap my mind about it.

I reflect on your first year and I think about some really cool things that God allowed me to experience through your birth and life so far.

First of all, God gave me the chance to really know what its like to experience childbirth. I'm one of the crazy people that wanted the full experience. With Wes, I got it :) I got to "go into labor" (instead of being induced) and even though I took a smidgen of nubain :) (narcotic) to help me through transition...I was able to deliver vaginally without an epidural. Again, something I really wanted and something that became somewhat important to me. This whole method of birthing babies became important to me because I'm really big on experience. I kind of get caught up in wanting to really know what things are like. I didn't like with Owen that I couldn't really tell anyone what a contraction felt like, or that I had no idea when I needed to push because the epidural totally took that away from me. I wanted to KNOW. And even now, even though I know how horrible the pain really is...(and it really is horrible! no getting around that!) I'm so glad that I did it. I'm so glad that I know and that I got to experience it in all of its glory. It wasn't about being a better mom than someone who did it differently than me. It was about me being able to really understand what childbirth was all about - minus drugs. And man. I got it. Jesus was really kind to me and let everything move quickly and fall into place. I won't recount the birth story because you can go read it here if you really want to Wes Birth Story, but it was a super cool/super crazy/super hard experience for me....one that I'm SUPER thankful that God allowed me to experience.

Secondly, breastfeeding. I had a terrible time nursing Owen. It just didn't work. I don't know why. I think some of it was inexperience/nerves/mental issues while now a large part of me just thinks that I kind of really had an unwilling baby. As someone who has really read up on the whole lactation process, I hesitate to state this...but nursing two babies now I kind of believe that its true. Owen was a bad/unwilling nurser; Wes was a great/willing nurser. I begged God to let me nurse my second baby. Again, it was something I really wanted. I decided that I would CHILL OUT and not get anxious about nursing a baby this time around and just "do it" :) Somehow that worked. A few other things that I think helped was "nursing early and often". I put Wes to the breast about 10 minutes after delivery and he nursed for about 30 minutes. In the hospital, I paid attention to every cue and whenever it seemed like he wanted to nurse, I put him to the breast. Something worked. Again, God was kind. AND, again...my baby was willing :) Makes a huge difference. I set out to do a year and Wes told me we were done just shy of 11 months. It was a nice ending to our nursing relationship- letting him tell me we were done was much easier than stopping it myself.

I could cry when I think how good God has been to me. Two things I really wanted: 1. To go through childbirth without an epidural and 2. To nurse my baby. He gave both of those things to me. I'm so grateful.

Wesley, you are like your big brother in many ways. A lot of your developmental milestones are similar. You got your two bottom teeth around the same time. You crawled around the same time. You "walked" around the same time (we're still working on this, but Wes tok a few steps on his own yesterday and Owen started taking steps on his own around 11 months). On the other hand, you are very different. Owen has always had a very laid back personality. YOU have fire and passion :) Owen loved everyone. YOU are a huge momma's boy. Owen was (is) a picky/small eater. YOU eat nearly everything and you eat a LOT! No worries about your weight over here!

I have yet to take you in for your 12 month check up (that happens on 10.12), so I don't know your current weight or length yet. I'll come back and add that later.

What I do know is that we love you. You fill our hearts. You make us busier and at times you have us shaking our heads at your "fury" and passion :) But we know that God gave you to us to make our family complete...and you do that in so many ways. We are so happy that God made it so that you and Owen would have each other. I'm so excited to watch you grow up together. I know you will fight and try to kill each other from time to time, but I have this dream...that maybe someday you'll be best friends. You can always be there for each other. You have this unique advantage (in this day and age) of having the same parents, living under the same roof (even if it is Grandma and Grandpa's right now!) and having lots and lots of love and support from so many different people who not only love you...but love Jesus.

I'm more than excited to see who you will become. We love you Wesley J. Happy Birthday big boy. You are ONE!

Here I go again...trying to change the picture and making it ginormous once again. So annoying. Blogger drives me crazy. It will probably be three weeks before Josh can walk me through shrinking the blasted thing. Sorry :)

P.S. Copyrights to the nice family picture go to Caleb and Heather Brown since we took this at their home....you know, being homeless and all :)

Wes 1st Birthday video

Wes's first birthday party

We had Wes's birthday party on Oct. 1. Josh will potentially be involved with Sectionals for soccer the actual weekend of Wes's birthday, so we celebrated a week earlier. It was a nice/cool/windy fall-ish kind of day...I wished it was a little warmer/less windy since we had the party at a park...but oy vey. It went fine. I don't think anyone caught pneumonia :) .It was a smallish gathering compared to the event we had for Owen, but eh...the second child always gets gipped, right? :) I don't think he'll care. He got a nice stash of presents...consumed a large amount of sugar (which may or may not have prompted the massive amounts of vomit that ensued later that night...the jury is still out on whether or not he is really sick)...and was loved on by dear friends and family. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!