Over the river and through the woods....

...to Grandmother's house we go!

Landon and Tate had an adventure going to Grandma and Grandpa's last week.  Grandma took them home with her for the week and they were so excited that they hardly waved as they pulled away from our house!  

I talked to them once on the phone - very briefly. And I did pretty good and I only talked to Grandma that one time also. She was thoughtful and emailed me and sent me pictures about their whereabouts and doings.

They had spent a week away from us before, but its been the two times that we went out of the country in the past few years, so we were very busy with our own activities. This is the first time where we've just been home without them.

There was less whining. Less giggling. Less running footsteps. Less food to make (I'm not sure if I cooked all week). Less questions asked. Less toys to clean up. Less bums to wipe. Less fighting. Less kisses and hugs.

It was kinda boring. :)

We still had Heath and he's the most demanding one these days anyways. We still didn't get to do things like sleep in or play tennis.

I was anxious to see them when they got home.

I heard tidbits of them doing things like: playing with 2nd cousins, learning karate moves, eating ice cream, tying Grandpa up, staying up late, playing with dragons and knights, being chased by Grandpa, making friends with Bucky the Dog, seeing a field of Wind Turbines (from far-off and up-close), and going to Grandma's little church.

Bath time at Grandma's

Washing Grandma's "racecar." For some reason, they've always called her car a "racecar." 

They had a GREAT time and made some very special memories with Grandma and Grandpa Vig. 

Handyman Husband Makes a Drying Rack

Adam made this wall drying rack in our laundry room awhile ago, but I just found the pictures on my camera. 

Let me tell you, he is one handy husband.

That first year of our marriage when we were a bit discouraged that he didn't have a youth ministry job turned out to be a HUGE blessing as he worked as a carpenter and picked up a heap of knowledge and skills. 

I show him a picture from a magazine of something I want. 

And he makes it!

Plus, it folds back into the wall nicely when its not in use or if I just want to hang something lightweight on it.

And here it is in full use with our cloth diapers on it. 

Thoughts on School

Hard to believe our kids are beginning to enter the school years next year. Landon will be going into Kindergarten. EEK!

I grew up in small town Indiana. There wasn't much of a choice as to where I would go to school. One school in town - it's where everybody went. It's been a little more difficult discerning the best option for our family when we have numerous public schools, private schools, and charter schools close to us. Not to mention that there is a considerable amount of support for homeschooling options in our area as well. 

We've tried to weed through the options. Private school isn't something we batted much of an eyelash at. The high tuition is too much for us when there are so many other educational opportunities. A Christian school sounds nice at continuing to affirm the values we are putting in the boys, but we take that as more of a challenge to make sure they are getting the truth at home and at church. 

There are some good charter schools in the area. We applied to one that is very close to us that we have multiple friends at. Unfortunately, they notified us awhile back that with their random lottery system Landon is #93 on the wait list to get into their kindergarten. Closed door. 

Homeschooling.  I admire those that take it on, but we do not feel the call to take it on at this time. There are many great teachers that have received training on how to educate children - I am not one of them. I take seriously my role at home to teach them as their parent - about Scripture, manners, household duties, finances, the world around them, how to be gentlemen, and lots of other jazz. And I'm sure we'll be very hands-on with homework as it comes, but at this point, we are going to let teachers handle the lesson plans and testing. 

Adam and I are both products of public schooling and feel that we weathered through those years and turned out pretty well. I mostly get nervous when it comes to the learning curve of other "non-academic" things that children pick up from others at school (and that kind of learning can obviously happen at a private Christian school and charter schools as well).  

This past year, we had Landon in a preschool setting at our local public school.  Several times he has asked why they don't talk about Jesus or the Bible ever at school. It's baffling to him. 

Something happened at Easter time that assured me that we can be a light in our local public school. This is the right thing for our family. It's not all about protecting our kids from what's out there. It's also about preparing them to share Jesus with those they encounter. Landon's teacher shared with us that during circle time she was asking the children what Easter was about.  She got the typical answers: egg hunts, easter bunny, springtime, baby chicks, easter baskets filled with candy, etc. She said most times she has done this someone pipes up something about church or Jesus. But out of the classroom of 15 kids, no one had any mention of it yet. She knows what Adam does for a living. She directed her question to Landon. And let me tell you, he took the opportunity to lay it out!

My 5-year old shared with the other 14 kids in his public school class about Jesus coming to the earth, dying for our sins on the cross and raising again 3 days later. 14 people that may have never heard about Jesus before.

We'll bathe our children in prayer. Teach them the Truth. Guide them and walk with them. Try our best to model the love of Christ. And we'll send them out with the hope that God can use our family to spread it. 

Date with Tate

Tate invited me to his preschool Mother's Tea. 

Although, there was no tea. Just lemonade.

That little guy is crazy sometimes, but he's also a charmer when he wants to be.

He likes me to call him "honey." And he tells me so.

And he tells me that he is going to love me forever.

I sure hope so.

 The kids sang a few songs. And then sat with their moms/grandmas/etc. Tate was a little upset because the other kids were singing so loud that he couldn't hear himself. We enjoyed some cookies and lemonade. He was so cute that I let him talk me into giving him extra cookies. And then they gave us presents they made. Tate painted a small flower pot for me. 

I'm living the good life. I have the affections and adoration of a very sweet 3 year old.

Beautiful Weeds

We are totally winning the dandelion contest! 

OUR YARD

NEIGHBOR'S YARD

The boys think our yard is so much prettier. I'm guessing our neighbors would disagree. 

All of the houses immediately next to us are retired folks who live up to the cliche of those having meticulous lawns. They all have beautiful, thick lush green lawns. We have been blessed with an abundance of dandelions. The boys have trouble understanding that they are supposedly undesirable things. I gush when they pick me a bouquet, but I tell them they are outside plants and we are not going to bring them back into the house to put them into a vase. 

We've tried to throw some weed stuff on the lawn recently, but it can take awhile to work. If it works. 

I imagine that Adam will someday be a retired meticulous lawn guy. But in our early 30s, priority of our lawn is pretty low on the list. We're just going to relish in the yellow beauties. 

Love Languages

I am so thankful that my husband makes an effort to speak my love language.

In pre-marital counseling 10 years ago we went through the book "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman  It helped to identify how we felt most loved and in turn, how to better love the other person. The 5 identified ways in the book are Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, Acts of Service, Gifts, and Quality Time. All of those are nice and lovely things and we all probably like to give and receive in all of those capacities at times. The book helped to understand which areas were most important to us. It has helped a lot in our marriage, but also in how I view my relationships with others.

Ten years ago, Words of Affirmation and Quality Time were most important to me.  Adam knows it is important to tell me he appreciates me, reassure his love for me, thank me for making dinner, write me notes, etc. Those things speak volumes to me.

Well, I took the quiz again a few weeks ago, and what do you know, I've managed to change!  I guess I like to keep him on his toes.  I'm now most strongly identified with Acts of Service.  Makes total sense to me when I think about it. I am often fighting off feelings of being overwhelmed and running around feeling like my to-do list is never-ending. I guess that whole 3 young kids, home ownership, part-time work, food preparation, ministries....(and the list could go on) would do that to me. I usually go to bed at night thinking about what the "action" plan is for the next day to try to put a dent into what I need/want to get done. So, while Words of Affirmation still was close behind, it was interesting to see how much Acts of Service rose up to the top for me. 10 years ago, I had little responsibility and my time was my own.

And interesting enough, Adam has changed also. 10 years ago, he was Physical Touch and Quality Time. Physical Touch is still really important to him. But Gifts has climbed toward the top for him. As I think about this, it makes sense to me. He used to spend money however he wanted. 10 years ago, he didn't have a wife or kids to think about yet. He wouldn't spend what he didn't have, but if he had something to spend, he would often spend it. Enter a penny-pinching/frugal/thrifty wife who oversees our mostly 1-income budget, and well....his freedom to spend as he pleases on DVD's, sports equipment, hobbies, etc. has been drastically cut back to....not much/nil/rare occasions. Receiving things that he's dreaming of and pining after means A LOT to him.

Wonder what another 10 years will do to us?

Anyways. Good story here. I made a meal for a friend who had surgery recently. In an effort to get it taken to them at a certain time, I had made a huge mess of the kitchen in the middle of the afternoon. HUGE! Dishes and food everywhere. I loaded up the boys in the van to go across town to drop off the meal. Before I left I texted Adam to tell him that I had gotten it done in time but that the kitchen was a disaster. I was dreading returning home to the mess, knowing that I should clean it up. Well, when I returned home, I walked into the kitchen to find it SPOTLESS! He had dashed out of his office (good thing he works close and had a flexible schedule that afternoon) and gotten home and cleaned everything up. He left my netbook sitting on the counter with a sweet note to me pulled up on it. And he was back at work before I even got home. Yep, he's good to me. He makes an effort to love me in ways that mean a lot to me.

Long post here. With no pictures. I'm sure I lost some people.

But if you would like to see what your Love Language is, you can go HERE. Click on the Profile and choose Love. There's some other tests you can take also. Like I said, knowing where I'm at helps in my marriage, but I've also referred to it when I handle relationships with family members, friends, co-workers. The world could always use more efforts of people trying to love one another.

Kick it!

We told Landon he could play soccer when he was 5.  And well, here we are.

It's a version of soccer anyways. The score isn't kept (well, not on a scoreboard....Adam and Landon still keep track in their heads). The kids get team shirts and get to wear shin guards and soccer cleats. Most of the kids aren't quite sure what they are doing otherwise. But there is a snack afterwards and I think that is pretty typical of a soccer game.

He's playing in our city league on a team with 5 & 6 year olds. He's one of the smaller kids out there. He's not super aggressive, but he seems to like it.  He runs around. He even tangled with other kids once or twice and ended up on the ground, but he would always pop back up.

And Adam gets to be the coach. Adam had said he would be willing to be a "helper," but I'm pretty sure they just rope all of the interested "helpers" into being the coach since there is always a shortage of people willing to coach. He's fully capable and he's an excellent choice for it.

Teaching good sportsmanship. Lining up for the post-game high fives.

Post-Game Snacks

Random pics from my camera

Life is moving too fast! Ahhhhh! Sorry for the delay in blog posts. Our days have been filled with preschool happenings, church events, playdates, ministry stuff, so much rain!, a few small outings, work, visits from family members, adventurous cooking, and in general, just the typical life stuff.  I know I'm not the only woman who goes to bed at night thinking about the "to-do" list for the next day. Thankfully, I'm so tired, that I usually sleep great (except for that one night when we watched a few TV series episodes that were WAY too intense for me. I'll leave you wondering about what that series was). :) 

Anyways. Here's a few pics as I clean out my camera. And I'll try to get back to posting an update every week...or so. 

Landon, who's sometimes a little timid, wanted to climb a rock wall while we are the Outdoors Show. 

Family pic on Easter.

Made homemade egg rolls to go with homemade Chicken Fried Rice.
Super yum and easier and cheaper than I would have imagined. 

Super cute.

Super cute again.

Tate playing at the log cabin at the zoo. Yep, my boys seem to prefer the non-animal exhibits some days.

Landon climbing the wooden train at the zoo.

2 of the 3 little handsome hunnies in my life.

Kitchen Facelift

As promised, here's the update about our little kitchen facelift. I don't really consider it a renovation. It was just minor stuff that helped things look a little better. Several people asked me what I considered a small amount of money to put towards this. I'm pretty open about sharing things like this.....this all ran us around $300. We certainly didn't NEED to do this, but we spend a lot of time in our kitchen and we spend a lot of time having people in our house.  My joy does not come from our earthly, material possessions, but I will admit that I did get some happiness from projects like this. :)  We plan to do a large kitchen renovation eventually (maybe in 5ish years?) in which we'll get new cupboards and change the layout of the kitchen. 

BEFORE

Hard to tell in a picture, but the countertop was a yellow color and it was pretty worn in areas and not in great shape. 

The picture does not show the true color of this "green" floor.  

AFTER

For those inquiring minds: White Chicken Chili is cooking in the slow cooker. And those cute little boys are playing with play-doh

We have a lot of Scripture and inspirational quotes and artwork in our house.
Went with something different for the kitchen. :)

Hard to tell what took place in small pictures. But, here's what we did:

- Took down the fruity border

- Painted the walls.

- Put down vinyl tiles on the floor.

- Put up a panel tile-looking backsplash.

- Painted the countertops and covered with a thick epoxy coating.

- New outlets and covers.

- A couple of new light fixtures.

- New artwork.

- A few miscellaneous little trim pieces, etc.

I had fun with this little house project. Adam is needed for all technical things....like electrical work and using big tools. But otherwise, I do a lot of it. If I didn't have him, I suppose I would make myself learn how to use a saw and a nail gun. But he likes to feel needed. And its fun to do it together.

Just because he's cute....

Happy baby!

Soooo peaceful.

Sorry that this is sideways.
But you get the idea...he has an excellent physique. 

First taste of baby food.  Not sure if he actually swallowed any of it. 

Sorry we're sideways again.  He is clearly deep in thought.

Boys and Their Toys

We're having fun with boy toys these days. 

Here's Landon with his army men. 

This was a highly desired item that he put on his Christmas list this past year.  

And then when I took a picture of his army men, he decided he then needed to add more toys to the scenario.....thus enters dinosaurs, monster trucks,and small pyramids. And then he thought I needed another picture. Sorry, it doesn't quite capture the whole scene....I had my "zoomier" lens on the camera and I couldn't back up any further. 

 Heath loves his playmat these days.  He's getting more and more fun! 

And next up is an Extreme Makeover:Superhero Edition.

We had 2 of the Fantastic Four's The Thing. (The yellow guy below)

We did not have an Incredible Hulk. 

Enter some paint. 

This frugal momma just expanded our Superhero collection by one more character.

I'm sure the paint will chip off easily, but I'm pretty happy with the results. 

And get excited folks! 

I spent a lot of time at home last week. Ok, pretty much all of my time at home.  

The flu went through our house and it probably hit me the hardest. 

Anyways. It made me really antsy for a new house project. 

Plus, I had some Christmas money that I just didn't have anything in mind for yet.

We're gonna do a thrifty Kitchen mini Makeover!

Stay tuned!

What to do when there's lots of snow...

We've been getting hammered with snow lately, so lots of chances to spend time doing indoor things. 

Here's the boys at the Car Show that came to town last weekend. Poppy and Aunt Ryn took them. Landon said that it was "the best time he's ever had in his ENTIRE life."  I love his enthusiasm. 

Here's the boys having a campout under our dining room table.
The most important item to bring on a campout: FOOD!  I like how they think. 

Today we did an art project.
Bouncy balls in paint and then swirl them around in a box. 

And we're growing too!  Here's Heath at 3 months old!

Don't worry, we are enjoying the great outdoors also.  It's just not as easy to take a camera with you when you go sledding.  They loved it though!  A neighbor watched Heath and we spent a few hours sledding and snowboarding on Monday in a local park.  So fun to watch them sail down the hill.

Over and out.
It's lunch time and then I promised the boys we could bundle up and go outside into the great tundra.
I love our days at home!

Landon turns 5!

Landon turned 5 last week! 

We threw him an Airplane themed birthday party!

We invited friends from church and preschool. And somewhere I remember that only about 70% of invitees usually attend a wedding.  Well, apparently, those statistics aren't quite the same for kid's birthday parties. They ALL said they were coming! Which means we were expecting 16 friends!

And on the invitation, I said that the children could "fly" alone and parents didn't need to stick around. 

So adventurous, aren't I?! 

(2 parents did stay)

The party was for 2 hours and my goal was to keep us busy the whole time and not allow any "free" play if possible.  There were games, a craft, snacks, cake, a short movie, etc. I tried to keep it organized and detailed, but yet also pretty simple and frugal to plan. 

This was one of the moment's where I had their attention. 

We encouraged our friends to bring $1 instead of a gift and then Landon could go to the store and pick out one special gift from everyone.  That way parents didn't have to stress about a gift....and we don't have an even greater excess of toys around this place.

Another calm moment as they watched a 5-minute short movie. 

I drew a plane and took a picture of Landon waving and pretending to be a pilot.  Then I made little copies of his picture for the kids to try to "pin," thus "Pin the Pilot on the Plane."  Landon said his favorite game was "Lost in the Clouds".  We filled our small inflatable pool with shredded paper and packing peanuts.  Kids then worked with partners to see how many toys they could find in it during the allotted time. 

Here's a few things I'd like to mention: 

1) I had asked 2 teenage girls to come help with crowd control and dubbed them as "flight attendants".  Sooooo helpful. They were from church so they knew all of the church kiddos already.  One of them snapped pics for me the whole time. So helpful to have them available to help with the squirrel-y kids. 

2) We definately had some squirrel-y kids.  And what kid isn't going to be excited to be at a birthday party?! None of the kids were awful.  I knew which ones I had to watch closer.  One upon arrival walked over to my couch (which isn't necessarily that nice) but literally started to trampoline jump on it! 

3) One of the party favors we sent home was a little baggy of blue cotton candy.  Originally, I had put little marshmallows in with them.  The idea was that it was a sky with clouds in it.  I had an airplane sticker on the baggy.  I put these together the day before the party. (Got the idea off of Pinterest) Several hours later, I looked at them and apparently you can't mix marshmallows and cotton candy!  The marshmallows had drastically shrunk the cotton candy and made it hard.  There's a science experiment waiting to explain what happened. I had Adam pick up some new cotton candy and I made new bags.  I was mildly annoyed, but quickly convinced myself that it was not a big deal.....especially since on that same day we found out some good friends of ours had a housefire.  My little inconvenience was nothing compared to what they were having to deal with on that day. 

4) Teachers are wonderful and gifted people.  After spending 2 hours with these kids, I was exhausted! EXHAUSTED! Literally drained. How do they do it 5 days a week and for much longer than I did?!!!!  

5) That was a lot of kids.  I don't regret it necessarily. Our house is pretty good-sized and we moved to multiple locations to keep things interesting. My least favorite part about that many kids is that I had to give extra attention to keeping some of the children in line with what we were doing and I feel like I hardly was able to interact with the children that were quieter.  We love to have people over. Our home is our ministry. And I loved having all of those kids in the house and being able to engage with them.  We got to know 2 preschool parents that we did not previously know.   

6) Having a "baby whisperer" on the job was important.  I handed Heath off before guests arrived and didn't have to worry about him again until every last guest was out of the door.  

Overall, I hope the kids had a fun time.  Landon said he did and that's who it was for! 

Here's a snapshot of Landon at 5 years old:

- He really likes playing with small toys. Small cars, marbles, little army men.  He's very into details and organization. 

- Still loves anything with wheels. 

- He still naps almost every day. :) (Don't hate me)

- His preschool teachers recently described him as observant, cautious, discerning, and a good friend to the other kids. 

- He asked for a scarf for his birthday. Yep, when asked what he wanted, he said a scarf. You better believe I made sure that sweet kid got a scarf.  Grandma Vig made him a cool fleece soccer scarf. 

- He wants to kiss me goodnight. Gonna cherish that as long as I can. 

- He is very interested in learning.  He frequently asks how things are spelled, how things work, what day of the week it is, etc.

- He struggles to eat things with foods mixed together.....soups, chili, casseroles, etc. He'll eat them eventually (because we don't give another option), but its often after it's cold and everybody else has left the table. 

- He's a sweet boy who is thoughtful, happy most of the time, and we are so blessed to be his parents!