love is hard...a valentine recap

i love valentine's day. i love how it transforms the thought of february into all things sweet and happy. 

i love how easy  it is to make things festive and fun.

things as simple as a garland of paper hearts

and these plastic heart plates from walmart.

little boys who insist on wearing bow ties with their heart throb tshirt also help. 

oh and pink milk and sprinkles on cinnamon rolls help too.

but i tell ya what...the decorations and the sugar are the easy part...
the daily loving of little sinners and being lovable myself is where it gets dicey. big time.

even sugar cookies can't help make that easier...   (that little chubby hand in the corner helps a tad.)

last year i bought these little mailboxes from target and committed to writing some kind of love note to each of the kids everyday from february 1st to the 14th. and this is hard. 

because at the end of the day when i'm trying to write specific, thoughtful, loving notes its hard not to dwell on all of their shortcomings, disobedience, selfishness, and ugly hearts.

it's much easier to remember the whining and grabbing and yelling and pouting...

on valentine's day we had a pretty darn rough morning...we were supposed to go to my mom's house for a little party at lunchtime but as we were trying to leave the house i {shamefully} kinda lost it on them. i don't remember much of my lecture except these words, "guys, it is HARD for mommy to love you sometimes!" i remember getting some surprised looks from my little darlings as it was obvious this was a concept their brains had never considered before. i felt pretty righteous in my rant. reminding them of all the work and sweet things i had done to make this month and day special and i how i could use just a little help, a little effort to love each other enough to get us out the door without more drama ...blah, blah, blah.

it wasn't until we were around the table at my mom's house and my mom mentioned how much she loved valentines day that Will piped in, "i love valentines day too. especially when mom yells at us." It was then that i saw the mirror go up.
while what i had yelled said was true, it wasn't said in love, it wasn't said in humility or grace or patience. i was telling them what i needed to make my life at that moment easier.
i wanted something in return for the sweet mama that i had been. :S

thankfully Will forgave me and i was grateful for the opportunity to show him my need for the gospel but sheesh, its hard and humbling.

today i read this short post from emily anderson and there were several little nuggets of mothering truth that were good to be reminded of, but these two below really stuck out to me. i pray God will change my heart and fill me so full with his love that it bubbles over to the children he gave me to raise for His glory and my good.

your heart is what your children will draw from.  and what you're like in your home is a mirror into your heart

for our kids to believe in god's love, they have to be loved well by us.



baby ben is 2

so baby ben turned 2 this weekend. i really can't bear to think he's a big boy yet, so he'll keep his title until further notice. at least in my book.

a few things about our benny boy:

- he is still a little guy of very few words. his repertoire includes:  MOM/ mommy, dada, wow, owie, bayoon(balloon), hi, bye-bye, yeehaw, pease (please), no, do (dog), and peepee and poopoo {ya know, only the important stuff}
along with a myriad of sounds: lots of "uh!", beeps, various animal noises, and tons of giggles

- the above does not in any way hinder him from communicating exactly what he wants around here.
he's deservedly been dubbed bossy ben- using lots of grunts, pulls, and pushes to get people moving. plus all he really has to do is look at anyone with one of his cute, dimpled little facial expressions and he's good to go.

- his favorite book is "goodnight moon". we have to keep it on a special shelf in his room, read it before   nap and bedtime every day and then afterwards say good night and pat about 10 different objects in his room. this tradition must not be broken. the repercussions are intense.

- balloons are his dearest objects of affection, second only to his beloved blankie.

- balloons also bring out the very worst in him...i'm thinking idol maybe? ;)

- he loves to watch and mirror his brother and sisters like crazy

- his favorite foods are bananas and chocolate, in any form

- he loves to climb...tables, counters, dressers, cribs...which means he has also had his fair share of falls already.

- a few of his nicknames include: benny boy, benster, benny boo and chubby bubby (used almost exclusively as a nighttime salutation by madeline and sophie)

- he loves, loves, loves to color on himself with a marker. mostly just on his hands, but sometimes it reaches his mouth.

-he loves to be tickled, especially by daddy who can almost always get a real good belly laugh out of him

- he also loves to carry around water balloons filled w/ just a little water and he HAS to have a smiley face drawn on them. (handyandy would very much like this routine to phase out...something about the hazards of carrying around a balloon filled with water inside the house??...)

- he loves following his brother and sisters everywhere...especially into the lego room, into their forts, on their bikes, and in their rooms. and always while sporting an impish grin that gives away the fact that he is fully aware that he is driving them a tad CRAZY.

-he loves to swipe dollies, nail polish,lego guys, other people's snacks, silly bands and everyone else's' markers and hide them in his back pack.

- he doesn't sleep the best. we still have a crib tent over his crib to keep him in bed and are most definitely delaying the inevitable training that needs to occur once we take the tent off...

- he just started being interested in watching cartoons with the other kids. yay for a 20 min. of containment!

- he loves that his daddy flies airplanes. every time this is mentioned he giggles and points with an "eh!" to the sky.

- he still loves mommy...(maybe the best)
he'll still snuggle with me after he wakes up and will give me air kisses if i ask {especially if he's trying to get something} and he doesn't mind {too much} when i snatch him up multiple times a day to squish and cover him with kisses.

happy birthday {big} baby ben!

We {heart} daddy

Happy Father's Day Handy Andy. We love you "yots".

 i love that i was able to capture the filth that is stained onto my children's sweet little feet. They're hard-core "bare-footers".... and well, their feet show it but they make their daddy proud. ;)

**here are 2 of about 20 outtakes. sheesh! these kiddos make it hard to take their pictures. although hats off to big brother Will who put himself in charge of keeping Ben's legs down so i could snap a coherent picture! bless his heart.

 oh ben, you and your squishy face...

May Day...nearly a couple weeks late

Happily for us we finally remembered May Day this year! HandyAndy and i both have great memories of making baskets, driving around town to our friends' houses and delivering them all ninja-like.

He started the morning out right by delivering his own handmade may day boxes to our doorstep.

Check out his origami handiwork. pretty fancy, right?  Then, since i hadn't even considered May Day baskets for the kids until Andy thought of it late the night before, we popped some popcorn and put in a couple little maple candies he had brought home from Canada and called it good.

Then we went to work rounding up little baskets and pails around our house in addition to making these silly little decorated plastic cup baskets.  

We filled them with some mini carrot muffins (because again, there was no planning ahead here!)

And loaded everyone up in the car.

 The kids picked just a couple of their little friends and had a BLAST running up to the door, ringing the bell and then dashing back in the car.

After we drove just out of sight they loved to stop to see if anyone had tried to follow. :)

This is just the best holiday for kids- its all about giving, thoughtfulness, surprising others and not expecting anything in return. So fun! We need to have "May Day" every month!
At least mark in on your calendars for next year. You'll have a blast. :)

Easter Day

We had a lovely day on Sunday.We enjoyed gorgeous Colorado weather and thankfully the kids' fevers broke just in time to enjoy a full day with lots of family and good times celebrating our RISEN SAVIOR

Here's our risen Jesus outside of the tomb of our little resurrection garden. :)

little side note: I can't tell you how excited i was to find a girly shirt in the exact same yellow as the little polo i found for Will. I knew the whole easter "dressing up" notion wouldn't be a bit appealing to our little Sophie but at least i had the "Your shirt gets to match Will's!!!" angle that ended up helping tremendously! ;)

Here's the coo-koo girls.

Baby Ben was ecstatic to participate in the egg hunt and couldn't hardly contain his excitement when he realized there were treats inside them! Double win. 

The cousins...it was so sweet to be able to enjoy the day with the gaggle of little people.

oh baby ben! you're just the cutest thing ever. and thanks for holding my hand through at least part of the hunt.

chocolate

Madeline was the only one willing to stop in the middle of the hunt to take a picture with me. 

Nana made her famous Bunny cake. He was greeted quite warmly by all the little peeps.

My wonderful Sister and her super sweet and completely adorable family. 

Oh and in case you were dying to know, we gave up on adding our Easter movie to blogger (thank you for your suggestions heidi...andrew said we're still having "file type compatibility issues" whatever that means! :)  Anyway, we decided to upload it to Vimeo. Click here if you'd like to view it .  

Here's the long awaited video:

Easter Story with Playmobil and Kids

Hope you all had a blessed day. 

Love, 

Meg

Easter happenings

I rarely think about preparing for a holiday in advance...they always hit me like a big surprise: "what?! it's the 30th of November and I haven't started an advent calendar?? What?! It's already February? I just barely took down Christmas! What?! Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks and i have a month-long unit study on the pilgrims!" I seriously need to get organized...speaking of which, i felt a huge boost of inspiration today from Alicia. Do you know her?? You should. I've never met her but she makes you feel like you might as well be besties. 

All that to say, Easter, came as a surprise again this year.

 Somehow all but 4 of our "stand-by" Resurrection eggs were missing and i kept seeing great alternatives, like this Resurrection Garden above, get passed around during the month of March and kept thinking, "yes. that would be good. my kids would like those. i should really do these readings, or those fun crafts"

And then wham! it's 2 days before palm sunday and i finally pull up the instructions for the garden and read that the wheat berries should be planted at least by palm sunday. So, i load up my 4 kids, (1 still in their pjs) and head to walmart to find some dirt. The rest was so easy and the kids have loved watering it each day. Today, we read the crucifixion story, made a stick cross, put a playmobile jesus inside the tomb and covered it with a large rock. Anyway, i guess i'm learning that its better to do something than to just quit if i can't get it together to do everything.

This is a picture of the huge, white and terrifying angel getting a little antsy to open the tomb.

******

I overhead a argument conversation between Will and Sophie a couple of days ago. it went like this:
Will: No, Sophie. Sophie! Jesus did not have a sword!
Sophie: YESSSS! He really wants a sword
Will: No, you need to learn this.
Sophie: AHHHHH!! Will! Jesus WANTS a sword!!
Will: No...i don't trust you.....
Sophie: WILLLLLL!
Will: fine. here's a sword.
~ quietness ~
Sophie: ching! ching! aHa! Arrr!

******

Today in the car,  Will out of the blue asked me "So...what exactly do easter eggs have to do with Easter? like, what do they mean??" 
The first answer i thought of was, "they mean that we will get chocolate."
But don't worry, thoughtful questions like this don't happen all the time so i tried to do my best to take advantage of it. ;)

Well...i guess that's all for now. I wish i knew how to upload an imovie onto the blog because Will got it into his head to recreate the Easter story with Playmobile and we all had a fun time acting it out...maybe i'll get my techy Handy Andy to work on that as soon as he gets home from this trip.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Easter week. If you need some oh so lovely table setting or dessert inspiration go see my sis here. :)

8 YEARS...and counting

wedding day 2004

Well, its that time again, time to bring out the old wedding albums, cringe at what babies we were, how little we really knew each other, how we definitely didn't know what were signing up for and how much uncertainty and even anxiety there were behind those picture-perfect moments on our wedding day.......

Then we happily close up the books, take a deep sigh of relief that, by God's grace, we have MOVED ON! I honestly never expected married life to be this good. I knew Handy Andy was the one for me when i was just barely 19...but honestly, it was a major leap of faith. We had just turned 20 when we were married and didn't know but a bit about who we were as individuals let alone who we were as a couple. But our God is more faithful than i ever really gave him credit for and has created a friendship and a love sweeter than i ever thought was possible (NOT perfect, mind you! but still very sweet). We've now come to happily appreciate that instead of ever having the chance of "falling out" of a young twitter-pated love, we instead got to grow into a true love we never really knew existed.  

So, Happy 8th(right?) Anniversary Cutie Pie ;)

 BABIES!!!! i seriously look 15. See what i mean? Who took us seriously!! :)

1st anniversary 2005...or at least close to it...in reality i was 7 months pregnant on our anniversary and not feeling a bit photogenic.

 2nd Anniversary 2006- went to denver for the weekend with our little baby Will

3rd Anniversary 2007- recreated the picture where Andrew proposed....awwwwwww

 4th Anniversary 2008- just a couple of weeks after our twins were born...feeling the fog of exhaustion but still got a dinner out! yay :)

 one of our favorite pics...taken on our 1st generation flip phone! haha

5th Anniversary 2009 - took a quickie, and i mean a 25 hour quickie trip (that Andrew piloted!) to LA. super, super fun.

6th Anniversary 2010- "the honeymoon we didn't have" in Mexico...turned out a little less than idyllic...think: diarrhea, pregnancy, killer sunburn, smashed toe nail- poor andrew; i was seriously a walking hazard for 5 days. :)

yay. we're finally going home. heehee

7th Anniversary 2011- quick family pic before we took the kids to grandma's house for a get-away

fun fun fun

  2012 - I love you sweetie! Looking forward to another year...and a date night next week when the sickies in our house are well again. ;)