Happy Birthday to my Bubba!

Yes I know it's cheesy...but that's what I call him! Today Brian is celebrating his 37th birthday....we have nothing too exciting planned...he will be helping our electrician friend wire our new house and then spend the rest of the day planning some more for church tomorrow. It has been a crazy week around here between house stuff, church stuff and just plain real life. Brian did take 2 days off at the beginning of the week to go hunting with Riley but came back to 98 e-mails and a wife that had 50,000+ words to say because she had been home with the kids for 2 days ;o) The kids also made him a cake last night and the Beeson's popped in for a visit. We had cake, visited for a minute and then fell into bed we were so tired. I also got Brian 4 magazine subscription for his birthday...I have been catching him reading my "Better Homes and Gardens" and "Family Fun" and thought he needed some magazines he would enjoy. I order from a company Best Deal Magazines and they always have great deals. I got his subscriptions for less than $4 each for 1 year...3 hunting magazines and 1 business magazine. We are soooo looking forward to the house being done...this building stuff is fun but exhausting! I'll post some new pictures soon of all of the updates. We are hoping to start siding the outside next week and start drywall pretty soon too. Dave just told us we will probably be ready to paint the interior the 1st of November....so we will be planning a painting party...consider yourself invited ;o)! Well I need to go for now....I am going to help with the wiring too...gotta build up that sweat equity!

13 things I love about my husband!

"Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb. It isn't something you get. It's something you do. It's the way you love your partner every day!"

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person."

Today we are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe it has been that long. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday we were getting married and heading off to Hawaii for our 15 day honeymoon! But here we are 13 years later! If you would have asked me when I met Brian almost 16 years ago, if I would have imagined my life like this I didn't have a big enough vision! God has blessed us in so many ways I can't even count! I do love my husband more each day although I may not always show it :o) Here are 13 things I love about him (one for each year of marriage so far!):

I LOVE:

1. The way he makes me laugh.
2. That he is such a good Daddy.
3. When he gets up with the kids in the morning.
4. That he gets along with my parents and doesn't mind spending time with them.
5. That he never criticizes me and always supports me (even when I am not being very smart)
6. That he loves the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength.
7. That he is so smart ~ most of the time :o)
8. That he is adventurous.
9. His biceps.
10. When he brings me flowers and buys me massages.
11. He talks to me on the phone even though he is not a phone person.
12. Our inside jokes.
13. How he loves me!

Mother's Day 2008!

As I post these pictures, I reflect on how blessed my life is. 4 beautiful children and a wonderful husband and a God that loves me and gave His life for me and so many more blessings including great friends and family! I think it is easy to get caught up in the day to day and forget about the little and big blessings alike. Mother's Day 2008 was simple but still blessed and special! Although it did involve 2 trips to the Doctor for me it still turned out relaxing. The kids woke up and made me crepes with strawberries and cream cheese filling...yummo!! We went to church and then picked up a Papa Murphy's pizza so I didn't have to cook later. The kids rubbed my feet and Brian gave me a card with a certificate for a 1 hour massage....loved that! The doctors office brought a uncertain diagnosis about the rash on my arms and legs (probably Polymorphous light eruption (PMLE) which is basically and allergy to the sun) but they did offer a prescription which has since helped. Hope you all had a blessed day especially my mom and mom-in-law!

Chapel

Riley and Jordan have chapel one Friday a month. I just love going and watching the kids perform skits, songs and get "character" awards. Last Friday Riley's class played "In the Jungle" on the marimbas. He did a great job! I recorded it using my camera so it is lower quality but you can still hear the song and see him a little bit.



We are definitely going to miss Cornerstone next year, but I know God is blessing us with another great school. We have decided to put them in public school in Missoula. We just feel like this will be a great way to get to know people and to be a part of the community. And because we have already purchased our lot, we know what school they will be going to. They will be going to Hellgate Elementary It is K-8 divided into 3 different schools. They have approximately 1200 students in all 3 schools combined. That will be a big change from their school of 90 students now. I trust God will protect them and give them grace during the transition. A lot of people have commented on the name of the school so I decided to research to find the origin. This is what I found on the internet. "French trappers, observing human bones strewn on the valley floor at the eastern canyon entrance, had a reminder of the bloody ambushes there. They started referring to the site as “Porte d’ Enfer,” translated as Hell’s Gate. The trappers claimed that it was “safer to enter the gates of hell than pass through this narrow confine.” The name Hell Gate would remain from that time on and be used to designate both the larger valley area where trading parties gathered, known as Hell Gate Ronde, and Hell Gate Village, the predecessor of the city of Missoula." At any rate, it has an excellent reputation of being a good school in Missoula so we are excited.

The evolution of the nickname...

Brian and I were talking about our kid's nicknames this morning and how funny it is how nicknames evolve...so I thought I would list some of their nicknames...mainly to remind myself and document them...lest I forget when I am old and grey. So here they are:


Brock:

• Brock-o-saurus
• Brocky
• Brocky Balboa
• Brock-o-nator
• Brock-a-rock
• Brocks
• Brockahontas (like Pocahontas)
• Brockie-Talkie
• Hurricane Brock ~ category 5
  

Abby:

• Abigail-ah
• Abba
  
• Abby Dabby Doo
• Abercrombie
• Crombie
• Crombinatious (see how they evolve)
• Abs
• Absimiilion (have no idea where that came from)
  

Jordan:

• Jordie
• Jordonie-Baloney
• Lil' Jay
• Baby Jay (when he was our baby)
  
• George
• Jorge (pronounced hor-hey)
• Jor-Dan (emphasis on the Dan)
• Ashley (given to him by Riley)

Riley:

• RyGuy
• Roy (Ry with an Australian accent)
• Roy-lay (Riley with an Aussie accent)
  
• Smiley Riley
• Ry
• Ry-Lay (emphasis on the Lay)
• Ham and Rye
• Tricia (given to him by Jordan)

Happy Easter!!!!

I dressed the kids up for Easter. Our church isn't formal, so I mainly dress them up because I think it is so stinkin' cute! It was like pulling teeth to get Abby to put her dress on...she informed me that she doesn't like dresses anymore...at which time I informed her she is my only girl and I reserve the right to dress her up a few times a year...one of which is Easter. So with a few tears... mostly from mom =)...off to church we went.

The baskets await for the children to wake up...hopefully not too early! Yes there is a basket for Brian too. I can't help myself...I love this kind of stuff!

Wow! What a busy and fun weekend it was! The kids had a great time hunting eggs, eating (way too much) candy, and just hanging out!

On Saturday we went to an Easter egg hunt with some friends. Here's a pic of Abby and Brock getting ready for the big egg hunt. Brock wasn't sure what to think but he caught on quick especially when he realized what was in the eggs.

Abby got quite a few eggs...there were 11,000 hidden in all...and the hunt was over in about 2 minutes =)
Sunday the kids woke up at 6:00 (uuuggghhh!) to look in their baskets. I think they had all of there candy eaten by 6:30 (not really but they were sure hyper.) We also decided to make monkey bread (a yummy cinnamon pull-apart with cream cheese frosting) so that just added to the sugar high madness. Brock was down for a nap by 9 am.

After breakfast we went to church and then came home for an egg hunt. Brock remembered the egg hunt from the day before and was screaming "eggs, eggs." He was so cute! I managed to get a group picture of them but Brock couldn't look up...he was too interested in his eggs! Notice that Abby changed out of her dress as soon as we walked in the door. At least she still has her cute pink bow in. We ended the day by having a great dinner with great friends! Hope you all had a blessed Easter!!

Random acts of Kindness!

I am feeling so blessed today! My day started with Jordan bringing me breakfast in bed...and it's not even my birthday. I have been taking to the boys lately about trying to be kind and going out of their way to do things for others (a hard concept for kids and even adults to get.) So when he walked into my room with waffles and apple juice I was so surprised! He had such a huge grin on his face...you can tell that he was pleased with himself! After breakfast I hurried Abby off to school and raced to my bible study...leaving my house a disaster! Not a good thing when you are trying to sell your house and anyone could come to look at anytime! At bible study we talked about kindness which was fitting considering Jordan's gesture earlier. Afterwards I headed back home, walked through my front door and felt like I was in the twilight zone. My great room (kitchen, dining room and living room) was immaculate. I thought I had lost it. Did I clean it before I left? No....my husband had come home from work while I was at bible study and cleaned it for me. He mopped, vacuumed, did dishes, etc. What a blessing!!! So to my wonderful son and husband...THANKS from the bottom of my heart!!

Binky Snob!!!!

So I knew Brock loved his binky but I didn't realize he was such a "Binky Snob!" We know he likes Mam pacifiers so that is all we have bought but we didn't realize he is so partial to the silicone kind and has quite a distaste for latex. I found this out tonight as we were in his room getting him dressed for bed. I didn't have a binky and he was fussing so I grabbed one out of the binky drawer (yes he has a drawer in his little bedroom table devoted to binkys and binky paraphernalia.) He put the binky in his mouth and made a funny look, he then took it out and inspected it and stuck it back in. This went on a couple more times before he squealed (not in a cute way) and threw the binky across the room. He then looked at me as if I had tried to poison him. Next he got off the changing table and ran to the drawer in search of another one. He rifled through the drawer and only found latex binkys. He looked at me again as if to say " Find me a binky or else..." all the while moaning "binty, binty, binty." When I finally found him a silicone one he popped it in and smiled. All is good! What kind of a binky monster have we created!!! We always thought it would be great to have a binky baby, as our first 3 children wouldn't have any thing to do with them, but now we are having second thoughts. It definitely has its perks, but I find myself wondering what to do as his 2nd birthday is approaching. Any suggestions out there from MORBS (that would be short for Moms of Recovered Binky Snobs) ?? The nice thing is the binky hasn't hindered his speech which is surpising. He is such a little mocking bird and he is saying new words on a daily basis. Some of my favorites are:
binty = binky
i wug gu = i love you
oh s**t = horsey (it really does sound like he is swearing, I am nor sure why horse comes out like this but it is the same everytime, I always have to repeat "your right that is a HORSEY"
ni ni - night night
truckie - truck
elkkkkkk - elk (with a lot of emphasis on the k as if he is German)
peez - please
taint tu - thank you

A momentous occasion!!

You could have heard the clapping and cheering down the block! Why so excited, you ask??? Becuase Brock went poopy on the potty for the 2nd time today! I am trying not to get to excited about this, but for now I will celebrate the 41 cents I saved on a diaper and that is one less poopy diaper I have to change! The funny thing is this has totally been his idea. He learned the word "poop" about 2 months ago (probably from his siblings.) Him and the boys have already starting to have tooting (I can't use that other word) contests. I have never seen a 20 month old that can toot on command. Anyway, one day he was grunting and I asked if he had to go potty and off he ran. He was so excited to sit on the toilet like a big boy and do his thing. Today he wanted a book and he just sat there, took his time and read. Those men start early with their bathroom breaks! He also enjoys the flushing process as you can see in the second picture. He watches it carefully as it goes down and says "Bye bye poopy!" Oh how blessed I would be if this continues! But I won't hold my breath as this is my 4th child I have potty-trained and I know it can be a long grueling road. But for the moment I will rejoice! And if for nothing else, he looked darn cute sitting on that toilet!

Love is when...

Jordan brought this home from school today. He was given the paper with the words "Love is when..." and he had to fill in the rest and draw a picture to go with it. I just love it when kids come up with stuff like this on their own. Sometimes I wonder if anything I say is getting through and then little moments like this make me feel so blessed! It is then I also remember that it is not so much what we say to them, but the way we live out God's love that they pick up on and learn from. Thank God for His grace that covers all of my motherhood blunders. For that I am grateful!