One Little, Two Little, Three Little Q-tips

Four little, five little, six little Q-tips…

Seven little, eight little, nine little Q-tips…

But just ONE little Q-tip boy!

 

And for the record, it was more than 10 little Q-tips. More like 750 of them.

Why do they make such big packages of  Q-tips anyway? Sigh. Being the frugal gal that I am, I shoved the Q-tips all back into the container despite the protests of my husband and insisted that we use them anyway.

What’s the big deal? I asked him. There’s nothing wrong with using wet, sucked on, lint covered Q-tips.

Sandy sand sand

My men and I were able to get away for a short vacation to the beach this past week. Nick had a 4 day weekend courtesy of the US Army, so we took the opportunity to leave town and enjoy some much needed R&R.

Have you ever done that? Ignore the budget and the busyness, and force yourself to book a night or two at some quiet beachy place, just to just get away?

We’ve been doing more and more of that lately. Some would probably frown, or question how busy we really are if we still manage to take these trips to the beach, but strangely enough… the busier we are, the more these little get-a-way’s are necessary.

I think we’ve always been a fairly busy family, filling our days with adventures of every kind—but I’ll tell you, Nick’s Company Command has earned the “busiest most stressful time in our life” title. We’re doing our best to roll with the punches, praising God for the opportunities to witness and bear testimony of our faith and trust in Him… but also doing all we can to take more breaks so burnout doesn’t hit.

I admit, sometimes I wonder if burn out has hit already, but again, we are trusting God and using our resources to add some downtime to our busy schedules.

As you can see, even Noah has been on the verge of burn out. So glad he was able to catch up on his sleep during our vacation.

So… as I said, we went to the beach. The beautiful glorious beach. I found a smackingly good deal for a 2 night stay at a golf course beach resort, and booked it before I could think twice. Our stay included free breakfast at the resorts restaurant and free bike rentals. Not to mention a one bedroom suite with a balcony overlooking the beautiful pools and lazy river. It was lovely.

And you know, the resort was marvelous, and I think we’ll stay there again, but the real highlight of the trip?

The beach. The beautiful sandy beach.

As we made the short walk down the board walk to the ocean side,  the smell of salt, sand, and sunscreen (yes! sunscreen!!) filled the air. It was heavenly. Coconut, pineapple, and every other sunscreen scent you can imagine. It wasn’t a crowded beach, by any stretch, but still I could smell it’s fragrance.

And crazy as it sounds, I stopped and breathed it in to make a memory. Then we slathered the boys down with sunscreen of our own, and then let them hit the beach running.

Within moments, diggers and dumpers, backhoes and plows were set to work by 6 little boy hands (and 4 adult helpful guiding adult hands too).

Oh sandy sand sand. How I love you!

We were all covered, head to toe, by the time we left.

As you can see, I literally mean, “head to toe.”

But still…it was such a pleasant vacation get-a-way, that every speck of sand we brought home with us seemed worth it.

Praise God for the much needed reprieve before returning home for another draining and busy week.

Ball Popper

Birthdays are a big deal in this house. At least to the boys and I. My husband doesn’t care too much about them, but he humors us and spoils us rotten anyway

But the boys and I… oh yeah, we’re all about birthdays. We love talking about cake and icecream, about parties and balloons, about presents and wrapping paper. It just gives us all shivers.

I don’t think it’s necessarily greed or discontentment that spurs us on, although that could certainly be part of it, but I think we mostly just love presents and surprises.

So a few weeks ago, the boys were talking about birthdays, and Josh (3yrs) said,

“Oh Mommy, for my burfday (birthday), I’d like one of dose (those) ball popper fings (things) with the air blower fings (things).” (we’re working on his “th’s”, can you tell?)

Not completely certain what he was talking about, Josh was kind enough to point it out to me the next time we were at Wal-Mart. I quickly noted that the ball popper “fing” was definitely a cool contraption (at the bottom a fan blows air that pushes light weight balls up the center cylinder. The balls go flying into the air and then drop back down, land on a slide, and come back to the fan to start the cycle over again. Very cool). But I also noted the toy was targeted as a play thing for 9-18month olds. Joshua seemed to note this at the same time as I did (seeing the baby on the front of the box) and he all of a sudden exclaimed,

“MOOOOOM!! I KNOW!! We can get the ball popper for Noah’s burfday! He’d love it. I know he would!”

And since I’m one that loves buying gifts as much as receiving them… AND since it touched my heart to see Joshua’s look of joy and excitement as he imagined getting Noah the BEST TOY IN THE WORLD, I agreed. The fact that it was the last one AND in the clearance section because the box was squashed may have played into it too.

So we bought it.

And we gave it to Noah on his birthday last week.

Fun and smiles like you wouldn’t believe.

 

And yes, Joshua is actually politely covering his mouth in one picture because he is laughing so hard. Oh man. I love these boys.

And since I’m sure all you fashionista’s were wondering, yes, I do let my boys dress themselves. And yes, their favorite colors are red and orange. And yes, yes, yes, they almost always wear their two favorite colors together.

Sigh.

Things I love today

Today has been a wonderful productive busy day.

While I feel myself heaving a giant sigh of joy (and relief) now that I am at the end of it, I can’t help but feel amazingly blessed and contented at the blessings of the Lord.

To name a few…

Backyard swings and evidences of brotherly love. Oh boy, do these boys love each other… and the swings. Thank you, Father, for my boys.

 

Next, I would have to mention sunny warm days and cold sweet tea. Such sweet spring days and cool wet refreshment are gifts from God alone.

*As a random side note, I’ve discovered a few delicious sweet tea variations with a little fiddling around. Peach iced tea with a splash of peach juice (tastes like Snapple), raspberry iced tea with a shot of raspberry syrup and/or fresh raspberries, and, of course, peppermint iced tea with peppermint leaves (and/or peppermint schnapps!) So good.

 

Then comes the discounts and the flower beds. A bargain hunter like me would be remiss not to mention how joyful I was to see the 50% off sign on these perfectly good petunias. Perfectly good petunias. Nice. Can’t wait to get these puppies planted in pots around the deck.

And speaking of the deck…

 

I’m so thankful for Navajo Red Paint. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s the accent color for the exterior of our home. I loved our house the very moment I first saw it… and loved it even more for the red door, red garages, and red shutters bursting with color. So pretty. The backyard deck is red too. And, as of this afternoon, it is all decked out (no pun intended) with a fresh coat of this deep dark paint.

If I’m honest, I’ll also mention that my hands, feet, and legs… as well as my boys extremities were covered with the paint earlier today too. What can I say? A girl can’t paint around here without some help from the boys. Apparently.

 

I also can’t help but say how thankful I am for a God who hears prayer and cares about even my little garden in the back yard. I seeded these amazing green beans (along with peas, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and a whole slew of herbs) 2 weeks ago. The weather has been warm for quite some time, and it was the perfect planting day. However… three days after I planted, we had a torrential rain storm. Inches of rain in just a few hours… and I found myself praying fervently that my garden would still grow. And would you believe it? It did. Every single plant that should have germinated by now, has. Wow! God is good.

 

Last, but certainly not least, I’m thankful for freckles. It appears that at least one of my little boys will take after his mother and don these adorable sun-kisses.

I know there were days in my childhood that I despised my freckles, but mostly, I just loved them. I loved how they’d start with a few here and there, and then slowly multiply, adding dimension and variety to my face. I did.  do. I love freckles. And I loved spotting them on Isaiah’s nose this afternoon.

 

Thank you, Lord, for your mercies that are new every morning. Thank you for giving me such joy in the little things. Great is Thy faithfulness.

One Year Old

 

My dear little Noah turned one this weekend.

A whole year old. I know it can be so boring to hear a mom blog on and on about how time flies and how fast they grow.

But can I just say, I don’t know where the time went and can’t believe how fast he grew.

One year old, really??

But yes, here he is, in all his sweetness, chowing down on his first birthday cake.

Despite the challenges and exhaustion that accompanied this first year, I admit without hesitation, that I loved every minute of it.

And oh boy, I really did. I mean really. I just loved it.

I think I must have kissed these sweet little cheeks a million times; each little kiss a burst of joy and gladness between him and I. Truly, being a parent has brought me more pleasure than I ever could have imagined. God is so good.

This little cake covered ball of cuteness just makes my heart sing.

Holes

I knew that the holes would be inevitable.

Ever since my first, second, and third pregnancy ultrasound’s revealed ALL BOY, I imagined holes in the knees of pants and big old patches sewn on top.

And what? with the crawling, pushing, breaking, driving, hauling, building and all the other “knee-walking” activities that go on in a little boys world, it’s not a wonder that even those good old Levi’s can’t keep up. Is it?

What I didn’t expect, was that it’d happen to my jeans too.

But… considering all the crawling, pushing, breaking, driving, hauling, building, and all the other “knee-walking” activities that I perform while keeping up with my brood of boys… it’s not a wonder that mama’s jeans can’t keep up with it either.

However, regardless of my sore knees, and the holes in my pants, I wouldn't trade all the crawling, pushing, breaking, driving, hauling, building and all the other "knee-walking" activities for a hundred pairs of new jeans.

Updates

Isn't it pretty?

The new blog header I'm sporting, I mean.

I've been trying to update my blog for months; fiddling with more photo editing and design programs than I can count. Despite the time I put into it, I just didn't like anything I came up with.

And truth is, you wouldn't have either.

In the midst of my struggles, a light bulb went off and I remembered that I have a dear sister-in- law who happens to be a graphic designer... and a darn good one at that. I'm so glad she was happy to help me out... and so glad I didn't embarrass myself and post one of the extremely lame looking headers I created.

Hannah, thank you for this beautiful header and for taking the time to help me out. And thanks for not laughing hysterically at my cheesy attempts at blog design masterpieces. You are wonderful.