Jagger Lost Something

And he was very excited about it. 

But it didn’t take too long for him to be worried about the whole situation.

What if the tooth fairy forgets me?  What if my teeth don’t grow in?  What if I can’t eat anymore?

Hopefully none of that will be the case though.

For Kenzie

My little sister gets antsy when I don’t blog for a couple weeks or so.  She threatens me on facebook.  It’s weird and I don’t know why.  Her life is much more exciting than mine. 

Case in point: She’s newly engaged, just graduated college, got herself a job selling medical stuff with my hubs, and she gets to move in with us and be my nanny.

What?  Nanny isn’t part of the job description.  Dang it!

Even so, the rest of this year is going to be full of Kenzie, and we’re pretty excited.  This means two things to me:  I now have a partner for Manicure Mondays, and my wardrobe is about to double. 

I just hope she doesn’t mind the fact that our bathroom renovation that was supposed to be done 15 months ago, isn’t exactly done yet.   You’re cool with peeing outside, right?  I kid!

First Taste of Summer

Just a few pics of this year’s first trip down to the lake.

And not a lot of words, because isn’t the lake is pretty self-explanatory?

But I guess I do need a couple captions:  Papa had a happy birthday.

And the mamas and the grandma had a happy mother’s day.

We enjoyed our time with our baby cousin.

And I’m positive that the water was not warm enough for me to get in.

But I guess these boys have different standards.

Obviously they had a blast.

And it was well deserved relief after a long and hot day of fishing.

 

Look how cute my husband is.  Just thought I should throw that out there. 

Clearly, that cute-patooty in the new life jacket is the apple of of his eye.

And I don’t know what this trilogy of Jagger’s frustration was all about, but the boys had a good time showing off their skills.

And that’s that.  We’re looking forward to a summer full of these kind of shenanigans.

Yeah, I said shenanigans.

The Detroit Tigers and the Netherlands, 5-year-old Style

Those are the names of Jagger’s t-ball and soccer teams, respectively. 

Kind of silly if you ask me.  

Anyways, I ‘ve got me a cute little athlete around here this spring. 

He is quite busy right around now because his mother doesn’t plan things so well and double booked his spring season.

Silly mommy. 

Ah, I love that kid with long hair in a hat.   

 

And I guess I love him in shin guards, too. 

Eggs and Candy and Stuff

A few days ago I carelessly mentioned something to Grant about Easter in front of the boys.  I say “carelessly” because whatever it was that I said, let the little boys know that the Easter Bunny ain’t no real thing.

Uh, oops.

Truth is, they didn’t fully grasp what I had revealed, but even if they had, I really don’t care.

Call me un-American, but I don’t like lying to my kids about ginormous mammals that hide candy around the house.  It’s creepy.

….I’m still gonna propagate the Santa thing though ….. So if you had any doubt, I am not totally ruining their childhood.

Only partially.

Even so, I’m 100% for filling up an Easter basket with gifts and doing an egg hunt.

I’m in it for the candy, that’s why.

We did have a nice Easter Sunday, thanks for asking.  We had a great morning at church and then went out to Grant’s parents’ house with some other friends. 

We feasted and fellowshipped, Jagger was inseparable from his new Leapster game, the kiddos got do do an indoor egg hunt, the boys refused all photography that involved wearing their blazers, and we got 1/2 of a family portrait taken.  I couldn’t ask for anything more, really. 

Sarcasm aside, we had a very lovely day celebrating our Savior with family and friends. 

More on Cash

Another reason why I love Cash: 

“Thanks for cleaning the windows, Mom.”

Seriously, a three-year-old thanked me for Windexing the windows.  Completely unprompted.  In the history of man, this may be a first. 

I. Love. Him.  Don’t let that mischievous look in his eyes fool you.  He’s the sweetest boy I know. 

*I also may have posted this as evidence that sometimes I do clean windows, contrary to what many may believe about me*

Around the House

This place is becoming a little more like home everyday.  The first few weeks I would always go the wrong way and attempt to make my way back to the old house after dropping the boys off at school.  Hopefully that habit is almost kicked.

Here’s a little bit more of my favorite room in the house.  It’s basically they only space that is “finished enough.”

I would love to get my hands on some white linen slipcovers over those wingbacks.  But I know I’ll never get around to it.  Plus, the floral and velvet are growing on me.   

I’m loving me some spring.

It’s so fun to see what surprises are popping up in the yard.  Although I have to admit I am a little ticked at Cash for plucking quite of few of the daffodils.   

Here is one of the boys’ favorite spots.  It is prime real estate for superheroes and pirates to get caught in Spidy’s web. 

While I was away on my trip and the boys were with the grandparents for a week, Grant went ahead and demolished the main bathroom.  He is putting in a new floor, tile, vanity, toilet, fixtures, you name it, basically.  So far it’s been out of commission for two weeks, and Lord willing it will just take one more.  Famous last words, though, right?

After that, next on his list is a little half bath attached to the boys bedroom.  That one shouldn’t take nearly as long, since it just needs a new floor and vanity and fixtures. 

And then it’s kitchen time!  We don’t know exactly what we are going to do to it yet, but I am looking forward to it. 

My responsibility during all this has been removing the wallpaper.  Oh, glorious wallpaper.  Hopefully some updated pics will come soon.     

Honduras

The trip was awesome and I am so thankful that I was able to go.  I seriously loved my time there and am sad that it couldn’t have been longer.

This is our group along with some staff from Predisan.  Predisan is a Christian Mission that provides healthcare, community development, and spiritual outreach to the mountainous regions of Honduras. 

Our time was specifically spent in the schools, building latrines for households that did not yet have them, and visiting in homes.  We were able to share our faith on many levels.   

The community was soooo grateful.  But really, we were the ones that were blessed with the experience. 

We got to see Christ in the eyes of the children. 

And in the brotherly love of the community. 

We got to witness their reliance on God, and bring that back home with us.

And what does the Lord require of you?                                                                                             

         To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

                                                                                                                            Micah 6:8

I pray I don’t easily forget the lessons learned here. 

So Here’s Some Random Stuff

I really want to share more progress on the house, but there hasn’t really been any. 

So that would be hard to share. 

So I won’t. 

I guess we’ve been focusing on other things around here.  I can’t think of those particular things at the moment, but I am sure they exist. 

Anyway, tomorrow is a big day for me.  I am headed to Honduras with the youth group from church for a week.  I am excited.  And nervous.  But mainly excited, I think.  Actually, I am just praying that this will be a great opportunity for all involved.  And honestly, for myself, I am hoping I will realize how blessed I am and that I need to start doing more.  More of what? I am not exactly sure.  But if this is going to be a swift kick in the butt, I’m ready.  I think.  Maybe.  No, I am.  I’m ready. 

Speaking of doing more, have you read Crazy Love?  I randomly picked it up yesterday to read on my plane rides tomorrow.  But then I accidently read the whole thing already.  Seriously, it will light a fire in you.  Hopefully I will be able to process that and write more about it later. 

In other awesome do-good news, my niece is coming home soon!  This has been a long journey for my sister and her husband, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for them and their new family.  If you haven’t caught this video yet on FB, watch it.  It makes me ridiculously happy. 

A video my brother-in-law made of the journey to meet their daughter.

Moving and Stuff

Goodbye house.  We’ll miss you!  You’ve been good to us.

But now we’re gone.  And, ugh.  Moving is so hard.  Me no likey. 

It was stressful, and I am soooo glad it’s over!

And now we are in the new house, and life feels chaotic.  We’re slowly settling.  But sometimes we look around and just feel overwhelmed.  I shouldn’t be on the computer right now, but it’s a nice distraction. 

I wanted to be able to share some before & after pics, but it what I currently have to share is more like before & during-the-chaos pics. 

This room, formerly the den, is now our master bedroom.  It has seen the biggest transformation. 

It is a lot more room than I am used to.  And I am loving it.    But obviously we’ve got more tweaking to do. Like inserting dresser drawers and other crazy awesome design stuff like that.   

The sunroom will be serving as our dining room, and it is by far my most favorite space in the house. 

Because of the views.  And our visitors. 

We love that we live right in the middle of town, and these guys still visit us everyday!  We usually see about 4-5 at a time, a few times a day, but we have seen up to 16 playing in our backyard.  And of course Grant wants to keep them around, hence the big pile of corn they are munching on. 

So that’s where we are right now.  Living with boxes all around, not able to find our belts or the laundry detergent, and watching the deer.