Freely, Freely

We sang this hymn in Church today. It wasn't the first time we have sung it, nor even the second time. But today, for some reason I recognized the beauty of the lyrics. I had such a lump in my throat that I could hardly sing.

God forgave my sin in Jesus' name,
I've been born again in Jesus' name,
And in Jesus' name I come to you
To share His love as He told me to.

Chorus:
He said, “Freely, freely you have received; Freely, freely give.
Go in my name and because you believe, Others will know that I live."

All power is given in Jesus' name,
In earth and heaven, in Jesus' name;
And in Jesus' name I come to you
To share His power as He told me to.

Chorus

Sleeping Habits: The Good, The Bad and the Cute!!!

Sometime after my babies turned one they turned into not so good sleepers. Not that ANY of them ever slept through the night as babies but it seemed that I allowed for bad sleeping habits to develop. Habits that I take full responsibility for and habits that I have had to break.

With The Boy it was as easy as me leaving the work world to be a SAHM and getting him on a schedule the summer prior to him starting kindergarten. For BuhBuh it took some tearful nights and an established, predictable bedtime routine. He will still occasionally come down to our room if he's had a bad dream. This is something I know he will grow out of and as seldom as it is, it isn't really much of a problem.

Little Dude was so used to nursing to sleep that once he was weaned I didn't really have a plan on what to do next. At his worst he would go, go, go until he crashed late afternoon, stay up late at night and go to bed in our bed every night. It was exhausting.

For the past few months we have done things to fix this. He is now sleeping in a toddler bed (still in our room), we have an established, predictable bedtime routine, and he has been taking naps during the day which has made the evenings a little easier to get through. I am happy to report that Little Dude is falling asleep on his own, in his own bed and staying there all night. I have reclaimed at least an hour where My Sweetie and I have to ourselves in the evenings before I head off to bed.

Last night I discovered we may still have one or two little problems.

One of them being THIS is NOT where I put him to bed last night!!!!

Either I need to get him to take a nap during the day in his own bed, or it's time to move him out of our room completely!

The List

We have a rule in our house. You are not allowed to speak of your birthday until two weeks before. The Boy will be 13 here in less than two weeks. We've talked about the different foods he wants, made arrangements for his family dinner and talked about what he would like to do with friends this year. He also presented us with this list.

"The Boys" Birthday and Christmas List

1. Hawkeye covers for my bed

2. I Pod Touch (Seriously, why not just a regular I Pod???)

3. DSi (You have a DS. You don't need the latest greatest thing)

4. Cell Phone (You don't talk on the phone. When we feel that a cell phone is a need, like when you start driving, then we will talk about it later.)

5. Money/Gift Cards

6. Lego Republic Gunship

7. A Computer (You will never have Internet access in your room. So you might as well just use the family computer downstairs. But I'll gladly put this on your high school graduation list.)

8. WOW-World of Warcraft ($15 a month when you are only allowed video games on weekends when you've done all your homework doesn't sound like a very good deal to me. I don't think we need access to yet another addictive game)

9. XBox Live (Considering the XBox is Daddy's, probably not.)

10. Yu-Gi-Oh Cards

11. Dungeons and Dragons mini characters

12. Cream Puffs (You'll have to hope your great-grandma does this for you!! And if she does, will you share??)

13. Mini Fridge (The house isn't that big. Walk downstairs and get yourself a snack)

14. Small Plasma screen TV (I really like you a lot and I would prefer if you would watch TV downstairs with us. Also I can monitor what you are watching that way.)

15. Diary of a Wimpy Kid-Dog Days

A boy has to dream I suppose. Hope he's not too disappointed come time to open his gifts.

Poor Kiddo....

It's hard to be The Boy when his mom is me.

Yesterday....

**The Boy: UGH! I feel like a Pastor's Kid! Always one of the first to get here and one of the last to leave.

Me: I'm sorry???

Pastor: No you're better behaved. The PK's are usually trying to sneak out.


Today.....

Me to The Boy: You know I'm going to be teaching your Wednesday Night group for awhile.

**The Boy: That's THREE of MY church things now!!!! NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do you have to be so involved???? Why do you have to love me so much???

Don't you feel sorry for this poor child???

**Note** He was generally smiling and using his "fake" whine during these conversations.

So long October...

Soccer is done. Football is done. First quarter report cards were good and so were conferences. This has been a busy start of the year. Our trip was refreshing and just what I needed to hopefully carry me through the holiday hustle. It has taken me this long to get back into the swing of things though...but we've managed to finish out October.

We had a day which the weather was perfect and the leaves were beautiful. I tried to get some good fall pictures of the boys.



The Boy had is fall music concert. He's once again in both choir and band.

We attended a family Halloween party. The party was at 4 on a Saturday. At 1 in the afternoon we still had no costumes. We bought all of the camo gear that the Good Will Store we visited had on its racks.

I turned 33. My Sweetie bought me all kinds of goodies for me feet. Then he and I drove an hour and a half away from home to an Italian restaurant. The drive was lovely, the food was great. We also celebrated with a Sunday brunch with my mom, dad and brother.

This past weekend was Halloween. The boys were adorable as always and we now have a TON of candy. I sent two gallon sized Ziploc bags with My Sweetie to work. We still have two large bowls of candy.

October was Ministry Appreciation month. I sent out 31 cards of appreciation and thanks to different people in our church.

Here we are in November. I'm sure the next two months will fly by. Looking forward to all the fun upcoming events in the next couple of months but I'm also looking forward to the months of January-March when life kind of slows down for the winter.

Bermuda with my Baby

On October 14th My Sweetie and I landed on the beautiful island of Bermuda....without the kids!! My Sweetie has worked for his company on the corporate side for 4 1/2 years. Every year he has "hit his numbers" that he needed to make for each year. For the first half of this year My Sweetie sold at least 60% HIGHER than his target which earned him into Presidents Club. A sweet place to be if you are the spouse who gets to be the guest on one of these trips. I am so proud of My Sweetie for his years of hard work and for earning President's Club this first half.

From the time we landed we were treated with the best hospitality you can imagine. In order for the guests of President Club to be given THE best treatment, the company flies in an entire hospitality staff to take care of everything during our stay.

The resort was beautiful. The dinner parties were amazing and more than I ever expected. The gifts they gave us were appreciated. The money they gave us was even more appreciated! The time spent with his team members were memorable. But the time My Sweetie and I had in our moments alone were priceless and a nice break from the reality of life at home.

Here are a TON of pictures from our trip.....

Ready to head out for the Welcome Dinner on our first night. I'm certain my eyes were the size of half dollars as I walked through the ballroom doors. The band was playing, waiters lined up with trays of wine, ice sculptures, beautifully set tables, food stations throughout the ballroom.


This is what I did most of the trip.


This is what My Sweetie did!


Our first full day was cloudy and windy but the best day for My Sweetie to see things in the ocean. The winds really never stopped and made the ocean very choppy and My Sweetie was unable to see much the rest of the trip.

As My Sweetie was out in the ocean snorkeling I sat on the beach reading my bible. He found this shell.....in the shape of a butterfly! I about cried.


Enjoying the beach.

We walked to this lighthouse then all the way up the 180-some steps to the top.

Looking down at our resort from the top of the lighthouse.

Us on top of the lighthouse.

Dinner our second evening

Peeking down towards our beach.


Beach Party dinner (inside due to weather) third night.

Toes in the sand!!!!

Our last night we had a cocktail hour and were able to have dinner alone!!!!

Flying out Sunday. Goodbye Bermuda. Thanks for letting us visit.

Racing through September

September has flown by and kept us on our toes!!! With two of the kids in two different sports this fall and all the other "normal" stuff there have been some nights when we've actually needed our jogging shoes on to keep up.

We had more birthday celebrations for our new 7 year old to do. He wanted a family party "at home"
We also gave him a little party for friends at the children's museum.

The kids each were able to make a rocket then they launched them in the lobby of the hotel. It was really fun to watch the rockets fly and see the smiles running to chase them down to run them back and try again.

Even The Daddy had fun!

Isn't he cute??!!! :)

We've had two soccer games a week. BuhBuh does such a good job of "getting in there"

Last night he even scored a goal!!!! (Sadly, I missed it because I was just getting back from picking The Boy up from football.)

Saturday mornings we've had football games to watch.

The Boy is also doing a good job of doing what he is suppose to out on the field.

For it being his first year, and having a cast on I'd say he's doing a pretty good job.

One game he even had a fumble recovery which had this momma proud and excited! The cast is officially off now. WOOHOO! Hopefully we can make it a little longer than 10 months until the next one. EEK!

During the day things are a little less hectic. I have my typical mommy work to do and there is always something for missions or children or youth that I am working on for church.

With my mommy friends having their babies off to school this year I had to find some things for Little Dude and I to do.

I'm going to Bible Study on Mondays which are a little challenging to have a 2-year old sit through....when this book study is done I might not do anymore until he's in preschool.

BUT, I did join a MOPS group which I am really enjoying. Little Dude has his own class he goes to and plays and does projects which he is always so proud of.

I get to sit and eat yummy food, and enjoy some time with other moms. I'm excited to see what other blessings come from belonging to this group.

He and I also are going to the Story Time at the Library. I forgot how much I missed that from when I did it with BuhBuh. It is a nice time just to focus on him without the distraction of the big kids or the chores at home. He has made a project there that he is very proud of too.

We've also been able to play with our friend Emery. I hope that we can do that some more but it's good for the both of them.

October begins tomorrow. I can't believe it. However, I'm looking forward to the trip My Sweetie and I get to take in 2 weeks!!!! BERMUDA!!!! I will miss the kids but they will be in very good grandma hands while we are gone. I am however looking forward to some much needed connecting time with My Sweetie and relaxing break from reality.

Future Lawyer???

BuhBuh: Is it illegal for a white person to marry a black person???

Me: Absolutely not.

Deep for a 7 year old I thought.......I have no idea where this question came from. It was out of the blue in the car. He must do most of his thinking in the car.

Later that afternoon he asked another question.

BuhBuh: Is it illegal to sleep while you are driving???

Me: It's very dangerous because if you are sleeping you can't see where you are going and will probably crash your car.

Moments later he asked....

BuhBuh: Is it illegal to lick a phone??

He said this as he picked up my phone and pretend to lick it.

Me: No BuhBuh, no it's not. But please don't lick my phone.