Park Picnics

Over the weekend we went to a local park for a picnic with some people from church. Now, I used to love taking my son to the park, though he wasn't much of a fan. But somehow on his birthday he did a complete 180 (or at least about 150) and now for the most part doesn't mind grass, and loves walking around in the parks (we can't say the same for swings quite yet). So his daddy had a fun time playing with him, and the two of them even joined in on a little kickball action! He's walking on his own now, but I don't think he would have understood that he needed to go to 1st base, so his daddy helped him along. :)

The first picture is actually from the Mother-Daughter (or in my case "son") Tea this past Saturday afternoon. It was beautifully decorated by Laura and Crystal and had a wonderful focus on Scripture verses and thriving as Christian moms. The food was delish too- even the chicken kabobs that Jamie and I grilled earlier that week for a few hours on the church's massive grill that was supposed to "save" time for us!

Mother's Day

I'm so blessed to be able to celebrate my second mother's day (Liam was born just 6 days before mother's day last year)! J gave me a tropical plant assortment (including my fav orchids-- hopefully I can keep these alive a lil longer!) on Saturday. He is working every day this month until the last weekend in May, but he had me come to the hospital where he treated me to breakfast... now you may think "hospital food, that's gross!", but al contrare, it is truly amazing and I love it- at least Botsfords! They have a brand new kitchen with gourmet food and it is so delicious. He let me pick out whatever I wanted, and it was so hard, because it all looked so good! But I ended up opting for french toast, eggs, hashbrowns and biscuits and gravy... so yum!! The best part though was my baby and I just getting to spend time with my sweet husband before we headed off to church. At church, Randy gave a wonderful morning mother's day service using the typical Proverbs 31 (but he did it so well, not making us feel like we could never live up to this woman, but focusing on how King Lemuel's mother must have been, to raise a boy that wanted that type of woman!), and also I Samuel and the story of Hannah, who after she was finally blessed with a baby, dedicated him back to the service of the Lord after 2-3 years... and how the Lord then blessed her with 5 more children.

Then yesterday afternoon, we headed over to the Blumes, where Cherise had a wonderful mother's day dinner for some of us from church. It was wonderful to be able to spend an evening with these families, and watch L interact with Ellyana. J was able to join towards the end, after he got off of work at 7, so it made the evening perfect!

Below is a link to a mother's song that I stole from Cherise with her permission :) I think it is just beautiful!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re5EIUIXbhc

Garage Doors and Rerewards

It's good to know that when my husband does yard work until after dark, and accidentally leaves the garage door open, the local police department has our backs. :)  It is the only logical explanation I could come up with in the restless wee hours of the morning as I wondered whether there was someone in my house downstairs.

I was awoken at about 1am, and while in the bathroom noticed that there was a police car sitting outside our house with it's lights off. Not for sure that this was actually what I was seeing (and I guess having a snoopy, curiosity itch), I went back to get my glasses. As I reached my bedside, I heard our garage door. Panicked, I paused for a second or two to listen to see if I could hear the door to our house from the garage being opened. I then headed back to the bathroom window. The police car was now facing my driveway with it's headlights on (but not on it due to the fact that the combination of my husband's car and mulch blocked any further access), our driveway sensor light was on, and moments later the police car left.

I figured waking my husband to ask him to go downstairs would have been pointless, as if I succeeded in the actual waking part, his cognizance would probably not be up to par  as a part of this wee morning package, so I asked him when he awoke for work whether or not he left the garage door open. He couldn't remember, but said it is a sure possibility. The garage light was on, but the door was shut when he went downstairs to check.

So I figure that Mr. Police Man was probably driving down the road by our house, noticed my husbands weirdly parked car at the entrance of our driveway, drove in to investigate, saw our opened garage door, waited and checked for suspicious activity, was thoughtful enough when he was content (after maybe feeling J's car and seeing the hood was cool to the touch) that nothing fishy was going on to lower the garage door before going on his merry way.

Do you guys have better explanations I should consider??

Anyhow, all this got me thinking the rest of that morning, and it reminded me of a discussion at a Bible study up in Prescott. The topic was "rereward". A new word it had been for most of us; the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines rereward as a rearguard. Found in various portions of scripture, the Bible mentions the tribe of Dan being rereward for the tribes of Israel (Numbers) and had it not been for the other Philistine lords, David, when he was fearful of Saul, was to help the Philistine King Achish attack the Israelites at Jezreel (I Samuel 29). The verse that I was reminded of most though was

"For you shall not go with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward"

Isaiah 55:12

Not sure why, but the incident this morning kind of made me think about how the police officer on duty had "our backs", or was covering our rear so to speak, in terms of watching out for us when we negligently forgot to lower our garage door last evening. By being alert and doing this for us, he protected us from a possible home invasion. It reminds me though how God has promised to be our rereward, just like he was to the Israelites when they were making their exodus from Egypt and crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 14). In our daily walks of life, not only does the Lord Jehovah, the great I AM that sees and is in control of all things in the future-- not only does He go out before us, making the crooked ways straight, but He also guards our backs, lest the enemy attack us from behind, whether by physical attacks or even mental ones from previous sins committed in the past. Isn't that a wonderful promise?!

Now if I could just remember this everyday. :)

365 days ago...

... I gave birth to the most precious little boy that brings so much joy to our lives. He is such a wonderful blessing from God, and we seriously can't imagine life without him (well, I guess sometimes I do reminisce when we are having a particular hectic day-- but then he smiles and my heart melts. I'm sure all you parents know this feeling!)

A Glimpse of the life of my 1 yr old son...

He is such a happy little baby. I love the personality he is developing everyday and just pray that God will give us the grace to be godly parents for him and raise him well. For now, he is totally happy with just pleasing his mommy. For the most part I only have to tell him no once. If I haven't vacuumed recently and he finds a piece of trash (or dead bug, eww!), he thoroughly inspects it and then hands it to me. He loves to eat (must get that from his mommy), and raids my pantry if I accidentally leave it open; he still acts as though I'm starving him... still hates anything green and will regurgitate it if I try to force feed him... but has the most adorable eyes that beg to no avail when I'm eating a yummy dessert! His favorite foods are probably strawberries and bananas, the latter of which he tried to eat peel and all once, when he got to my grocery bags before I could put them all away!

He still hates grass... and really hates to be within 2ft of it, though he loves looking at it from his parents arms, and especially from indoors. He's not too big of a fan of the outdoor swing too... probably because it is "unstably" right above previously mentioned grass. He loves water though, and we are looking forward to letting him play (and hopefully enjoy!) his new outdoor inflatable pool! He loves his walks, and touching flowers and trees.

Although he can climb up and down the stairs without help now (though the midstair landing still throws him for a loop!), he is still a bit too cautious to walk on his own. The most he will take is a couple steps, then stand there, sit back down and crawl the rest of the way... I guess he figures its not worth the work! Although cautious in some areas, he is adventurous in others, especially climbing! He still tries to climb up bookcases, chairs, and most recently his pack-and-play... yes, that's right, his little feet had made it half way up the pack-n-play before he was unsure where to go next (he didn't really like the idea of falling headfirst over the other side) and just let go. It makes me wonder how much longer the crib will hold him.

His favorite words are "mama", "dada" and a universal "baba" for everything else. He waves goodbye, leans his forehead forward when you say the word "kisses" (so that you can kiss him), once in a blue moon signs the word "more" and likes to mimic whatever his parents are doing (most recently I was blowing on my soup, so he blew on his cheerios). He loves balls and things with wheels, be it walkers for the elderly or his toy trucks and cars. He was recently fascinated with a birthday card from a wonderful woman at church, which had a picture of a dump truck on it and was trying to turn the wheel for a good few minutes! He loves to dance and will find a beat in various types of music, be it Christian worship songs, hymns or country!

(Beth thought it would be great if I got a picture of the four generations of boys... see her trying to hide behind the tree, lol!)

The pictures below are from when J's parents were in town last week. They had mentioned to us earlier that they wanted to celebrate on Monday, when they were out and brought cake with them (which we forgot to eat), though I figured I'd just make L cupcakes to eat. Anyhow, Monday evening rolls around and Beth thought it best if we kept painting through the daylight hours (which is til about 9 out here). J and I had to make a home depot run to get some more paint and were gone for a good hour waiting for them to mix  up paint. While we were gone, Stan and L's great great uncle Len went and got sushi. By the time J and I returned, the others had given up waiting, and had eaten already and it was close to 930! Determined to still celebrate, especially since Len had brought a gift for Liam, I quick made up some frosting, put it on a cupcake, threw my son in a high chair and gave it to him with a candle on top. J wanted the candle lit, and though I didn't think it such a good idea, he prevailed and no sooner had we lit the candle then L's lil fingers went for it. So we blew it out as his mommy said a panicked "no!". Well, I scared the poor kid, and then he didn't want to touch his cupcake, as people snapped pics and tried to get him to eat it. Curiosity  (and sprinkles) got the best of him though and he mostly went for the frosting (probably because this is the first time he's ever had anything sweet), and some of the cupcake. Then he opened his presents, amidst family and a cluttered dining room (from all the furniture and kitchen appliances we had moved for painting), which often attracted his attention more then his presents!
As a result, my son was wired (from the sugar most likely) even at 11pm and didn't fall asleep til almost midnight. As J and I laid in bed, we decided that hopefully, his schedule permitting, we can have a more festive round 2!

"Are you sure I'm allowed to eat this, Mommy?"

For being healthy, this is actually kind of good...

"Do you want some too?"

"Here Daddy, you try it"

 

I opted not to try to make a healthy cake from scratch, but still went with a "nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, wheat-free, made with evaporated cane juice" mix (which unfortunately also happened to end up being organic-aren't they all?!) ... and according to my husband and others, it actually tasted good!

It almost feels like Christmas ;)

"Forget the rest of the wrapping paper, I'm content just playing with the wheel"

 (great great) Uncle Len's present

Waiting anxiously for Daddy to unbox his gift

Playing peek-a-boo with the blanket from Len

The cars that Gpa and Gma Virkler bought him

Best Buddies :)