SPIDER - MAN!!!

Earlier today, I was downstairs printing some pages that I needed, when all of a sudden, I heard what sounded like about 8 boys jumping around the living room!  Well, when I came upstairs, Lincoln very excitedly said, "mama, look at what I got!"  I said, "let me see."  He showed me a dead spider!  I asked him where he found it and he told me it was walking across the floor right over there!  I said what did you do?  He told me that he jumped on it like this!!!!! ((jumping up & down...sounding again like the 8 boys)) Made me giggle!  So I sent him to flush it down the toilet! Then I proceeded to boost his male ego & tell him that killing a spider was a super tough manly thing to do & that he was a hero to girls everywhere!

Then when Mike came home for lunch, we got to tell him the exciting story all over again!  I LOVE LIVING WITH THESE BOYS!!!!!!

A little catch up....

Two weeks ago today, we got our first support letters all printed & folded. Then I had a team of jr/high school girls & their mom graciously offer to help me stuff all the envelopes & put the labels on.  I wish I had taken pictures of this fun time, but I didn't!  Next time I will remember!!!  Then on Monday, I finished up sealing them & stamping them & got them in the mail!  So exciting to mail out over 450 letters about our exciting ministry!  And so far, only 1 has returned to me due to a wrong address!!  So, not too bad so far!  I have been waiting & cringing in fear that everytime I open the mail box that it could be full of blue envelopes with wrong addresses....so I am very thankful!

But, in more exciting news, we have officially received 2 pledge cards returned!!!! YAY JESUS!!! We have had several verbal commitments also.

On Saturday we will leave & head for Wyoming.  Mike will be preaching at First Christian Church in Wheatland, Wy (church we served with before moving to Norton the first time).  Then we will make our way around the state visiting some of my family & lots of friends & former youth group students.  This will be a very exciting trip for us.  Please pray for the boys as we travel...it will be lots of van time for them!

Please keep praying for us as we look for a house, & continue our support raising!  We are having so much fun!!!

Late post...really late!

Ok, so for those of you who only keep up with me on this blog...I apologize!  What I am about to tell you has been public for about 2 months now, but a friend recently reminded me that I needed to blog about this!

Yep, that's right!!! BABY SANDER #3 will be joining us mid-October...we are ELATED!!! This is such an exciting time, for us!  So much going on already & this is the best, most exciting news!  The boys are excited also!  Lincoln keeps changing his mind about whether this baby is a boy or a girl...who knows!  We like the anticipation of waiting until the moment he/she arrives, so you will all have to wait as well!  In the mean time...I am now 16 weeks & finally starting to feel my energy that has escaped me for some time now.  I still get tired, but not all the time exhausted.  I can't complain though...all of my babies so far have been very gracious to me.  Only giving me slight nausea (except Justice...I did get sick once) and fatigue...but that beats the alternative...I'm sorry friends who had/have terrible sickness.

More later....

Justice is 2 (almost)!!!

My "baby" turns 2 tomorrow, and yes I am sitting here being sentimental. Oh how the time flies!  I adore this little boy.  He is such a true "redhead." He is a ball of fire, so much fun, temper, loves to giggle, & just enjoys life.  Someone once told me they just laugh at him, because he has 2 emotions....1) Happy/laughing 2) Angry.  Pretty true....he is one extreme or the other. I find myself worrying that something is wrong if he is somewhere in between the extremes. LOL He is the sweetest, orneriest guy I have EVER been around (or heard of for that matter). He constantly makes me laugh, sometimes makes me want to scream, but mostly just laugh!  I am so completely in love with him its insane!  He melts my heart 1000 times a day!  If he hasn't melted your heart yet, you need to come spend more time with us!  He is an amazing little person!

So.....that means, busy week for me!  Wednesday, we will do our typical trip to the donut shop to kick off the birthday celebration. Then the next few days will be spent cleaning & baking cakes!  I am going to attempt a full body Elmo cake (fingers crossed).  Mike has a cute idea (in his head, you'd think he would find me a picture), so hopefully it will work!  Also I will be making Elmo face cupcakes.  I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!!! So anyway, I should probably get busy doing something other than blogging!  Hopefully I will get pictures up on Saturday night.....or Sunday afternoon!

A little over a month ago, we announced that we would be resigning from the church & working at the Rock Christian Youth Center full time.  The thing is, the Rock doesn't have the budget to supply a salary for us.  So, we will be raising support for our family.  I'm so excited/scared for this opportunity!  

Yesterday, we took some family photos (thanks, Rachelle!).  We needed some current pics for our letterhead, prayer card etc.  We had a great time!  Pictures with a 3 & almost 2 years old is challenging & fun at the same time!  But we did happen to get a few shots that are PERFECT for what we needed.  We Mike chose the above picture for our prayer card, because it is so us!  This is like a fun evening at home playing with the boys.  Me- laughing, Lincoln- showing off, Justice- preoccupied, & Mike just loving us all!!!  So....with all that said I have a few prayer needs to share with you!

• Next week, Mike & I will be going to a conference to learn about raising support for our ministry.  I'm sure the learning curve is going to be well above my head, so please pray that I will be able to soak it all in, or at the very least take good notes that I can spend time mulling through later! 

• My mom & sister are traveling here to stay with our boys while we are gone!  Please pray for safe travel & good weather for their travel!

• Currently I have the responsibility to input names & addresses into our database system for mailings.  Please pray for me as I do this.  We  have a list of names of friends & family, and sometimes I wanna make the choice whether or not they will support us.  I try to over think their financial situation. Mostly, I don't want to send to people that I feel we would be a burden to.  I'm currently trying to work through these feelings & let God be in control.  Knowing that prayer support is a greater need than financial support.  Also, pray for those who will be receiving our mailing.  Pray that God would lead them in their commitment to be involved in the ministry at the Rock.

• My biggest concern right now is a house for us to live in.  Currently, we live in the church parsonage....so, we need to be finding something else.  I HAVE HUGE FEARS ABOUT THIS!!! We have  "our idea" of where/what type of house we would like to live in, but sometimes I feel like we are dreaming too big or asking for too much.  So I try to look for houses for sale/rent etc & I always find reasons why I don't wanna live there.  So on one hand I'm dreaming too big, on the other I just want a place to live, but I'm being too picky.  For example, I was driving to the store the other day, see houses for sale & the thoughts that race through my head are....it's on a busy street, there's not back yard for the boys, or its too small, it's so tiny, its too expensive etc.  One day while having these thoughts, I stopped & prayed.  I shared all of this with Jesus & I asked him to provide the house that he wants for us.  But the human side of me wants to just figure it out. Please pray for patience & wisdom. It is so hard to wait & to trust God!  

Well, thanks for reading & praying for us!  Love you all! 

Best moment of the day! (and probably any day)

I love my boys!

Today during worship, our song leader (Jeremie) was talking during a break in one of the songs. He was talking about how much God loves us & how that His love is so much bigger than all of our sin!  At that moment a tiny 3 year old hand reached up, clasped mine, and a cute little blond haired, blue eyed, boy looked at me and said "Mom, I LOVE Jesus!"  Lincoln melts my heart once again!

My challenge is to remember these most precious moments during the trying times.  I will spare the details of the not so good parts of my day.  Sometimes I wonder, "Why do I constantly have to remind myself that I love these boys so much?" I feel like a bad mom at those times. But I feel like a good mom when I always remember to act out of love first.

Praying that I will act out of LOVE towards others more often.

Birthday!

So...last week I had a birthday!  I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY & I'm not afraid to tell each of you that I am now 32!  I almost feel like an adult when I admit that I am 32...THIRTY-TWO!!!! Anyway, the main reason I LOVE my birthday is because my AMAZING husband (of almost 12 years) ALWAYS spoils me rotten!  Ever since we were dating he has made a big deal about my birthday er....should I say WEEK!  Since my big day is the 18th...he starts celebrating me on Valentine's day & goes through my birthday!  Yep...I'm spoiled...and I LOVE IT!  This year, he admittedly said he was struggling with what to do for the celebration.  So he asked me about some ideas & we decided that we would go to Omaha as a family, hang out & have fun!!! So, we made hotel reservations & Mike told me to make the plan!  HA!!!  This wasn't the fun part....I hate being in charge of planning stuff like this...especially with 2 young boys.  I am a no plans kinda girl.  So, that's kinda what we did...kinda.  I did make some plans. Mostly we just spent time together! THE BEST!  Oh & we stopped to see our friends Austin & Amanda....and their sweet 2 week old little girl!  (I want one).  So precious!!!

I ALWAYS want to eat Olive Garden for my birthday, but it is a struggle, because I know Mike does not LOVE like it at all! For one, his choices are limited due to his onion allergy & 2 he just doesn't care for pasta that much. Sooo.....my friend Jacob told me about Grisanti's.  A nice Italian place (very similar to OG) that also has STEAK!!!! It's like the perfect place for couples...I can have pasta & he can have steak (prime rib to be exact). So that's what we did on Thursday night. We went to Grisanti's with our awesome friends Cody & Meghan.  We had a great time.  My supper was sooo yummy. I shared with Justice & also got to enjoy my leftovers a few days later at home!  Mmmmmm!

On Friday, we woke up & decided to take the boys to get donuts (Krispy Kreme of course).  If you have never had a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut hot off the line...YOU ARE MISSING OUT!!!  PLUS, (Lincoln's favorite part) you can see the donuts be made.  They have a huge assembly line machine that you watch the dough drop onto the tray, go through the proofer, drop into the hot oil, flip over in the oil, go through the waterfall of frosting & then around the train!  Lincoln stood forever & watched the process.  Justice was intrigued, but was much more interested in the yummy frosted goodness!!! No surprise here!

When we could finally drag Lincoln away, we decided to head to the mall to do some shopping.  So we got the boys in the stroller & off we went to shop.  They are true men, shopping is just not their thing, they get bored with it rather quickly.  Lucky for me, the mall has the most amazing play place.  It's sooo cool!  Super soft floor (no ouchies if they fall), fun things to play & climb on (also soft). It was the best.  So Mike & I sat & watched the boys play for awhile, then we took turns going & getting a chair massage from the massage place!  YAY for a birthday massage!!! Then we watched them play more!

After our time at the mall, we went to CHIPOTLE for lunch!  So yummy! Justice loved it...Lincoln wasn't sure about his taco, but he liked the chips!







Some silly glasses I put on...they said Happy Birthday on them!

So, our shopping was kinda not shopping.  BUT....I had so much fun watching my little guys just enjoy life!  They are such a joy to me. I am so blessed to get to celebrate everyday with them, especially my birthday. Justice fell asleep in the van before we could get back to the hotel, so we decided to do a little more shopping & let him sleep in the van.  We took turns going into various places!  I didn't buy hardly anything!  But it was still fun! After they woke up we went to another mall, same story as the last!  Great play place & also a train! The boys could have stayed & watched Thomas for hours!  We didn't want to keep feeding Thomas our money though, so sadly we left!

We did have supper plans with Cody & Meghan again!  We grilled steaks @ Meghan's apartment and she made yummy baked asparagus & I made fried potatoes!  It was a great birthday supper!  Later, Cody & Meghan played Mario Kart with Lincoln....he had so much fun!  Best part of my day though was at bedtime, Lincoln was sad because my birthday was over & we didn't go to my party.  So he sang Happy Birthday to me like 5 times!!! THE BEST EVER!!!!!!!

Saturday morning we repeated the trip to Krispy Kreme (Meghan had never been there).  After we said our goodbyes, we went back to the mall for a couple of things I needed!  Mike & the boys stayed in the van & watched Peter Pan for the 50th time on the trip (new fave movie).  Then we met up with Mike's mom & dad for lunch & then went to a 50th wedding anniversary party!  50 years...so AWESOME!!  I can't wait for 38 more birthdays with my hubby & we will be at 50 years!!! WOW!!!!

So, probably the most unique birthday celebration I've ever had, but one of the best!  I love my 3 boys so much & can't imagine life without them! They definitely take my mind off of turning "older."