Titus-3 Months

Titus is starting to enjoy batting at his toy arch.
He is also trying to suck on this thumb/fingers. Here Titus is sporting his new outfit from Grandma & Grandpa.
Already bigger than his bear!
Matching shirt with dad- they are SO cute!!!

Big sisters helped feed Titus his first bottle. He didn't fuss a bit. I was thrilled as neither of the girls liked to eat from a bottle.
Titus was 3 months old on Sunday. At his last check-up (about a week ago) he weighed 15.6 lbs. and was 24 inches long! He is rapidly climbing the growth chart. We love having a baby brother in our family.

School

Fun on the playground.
Grace doing her "job" of being the line leader.
Miss Lisa dancing and singing with the kids. Grace's teacher is awesome!! I am so glad she was Grace's first teacher.
Grace and her best bud Brynn.

This week is Grace's last week of "school." She has truly enjoyed getting to go to her class. The class is provided through Missouri's Parents as Teachers program. I totally heart this program and am very sad that they are experiencing major budget cuts. Last week I volunteered in her class and got to sneak a few pictures. Grace told me, "Mom I have two more days of school left and then I go to kindergarten. What is kindergarten?" Oh, no lets not talk about kindergarten yet!! I still have one year to enjoy my "baby" girl at home before that.

Quotable Quotes

I feel like Grace says something I want to write down like everyday lately. Here are a few:

"Mom, don't you wish we had a Handy Manny in our world to fix everything? (Pause) Well, we do have one. Daddy is our Handy Manny!"

"Mom, if Gramy was in Mom-o's tummy whose tummy was Mom-o in?" (Mom-o is my grandmother. I responded Gramy without thinking because that is what we called my great-grandmother. Than I tried to explain that she was in Heaven with Jesus) Grace's response "So, can we go visit her soon?"

"Parker, if you want to go to Heaven to be with God you have to love Jesus with your whole heart." Parker's Response: "I know that." (Parker is 5)

Jeremy baptized a student on Saturday. Grace was asking lots of questions about this. I explained that when you love Jesus with you whole heart and want to follow him you can be baptized when you are old enough. To which she replied, "I don't want to get baptized! I don't want my head to go under the water!!" (She was quite emphatic about that)

When asking about our neighbor:

"Mama who are those boys who live at Miss Donna's house?" I explained that Aaron is her son. To which she replied, "NO, mama the big boss what is his name?" (The big boss is what Grace uses to refer to the daddy.)

"Mama, papa said he is going to buy me a little basketball and I can practice drills in the driveway!" (I'm pretty sure she has no idea what a drill is, or she wouldn't be so excited)

Grace continues to have a lot of questions about Heaven including:

Can I take my horse there? Will my dolls be there? When will we come back to our yellow house? Will there be flowers to pick in Heaven? What does our house in Heaven look like? When are we going? How long will we stay there?......

Faith also had a funny moment. I finally finished getting out their spring/summer clothes. The first morning Faith woke up wearing a set of summer pjs she kept saying "Swimmin suit." over and over. I finally figured out she wanted to wear her pjs all day because she thought they were a swimming suit because the top had spaghetti straps.

Easter Fun

Early Easter Celebration With Grandpa & Grandma

Easter Day the kids were not really cooperative with taking a picture. So, we didn't actually get a good one of all 3 of them.

Our fruit "basket"

Grace looked so grown up in her polka dot dress!
Titus gets in on the Easter egg hunt at Gramy's house.
Faith discovers her Easter "bag" from Nana.
Our family Easter basket- we have opted to do one family basket instead of individual baskets. Our own twist on the Easter basket tradition.
Our attempt at a family picture.

The girls opened their Easter baskets from Grandpa Rick & Grandma Leeanne early when we were visiting them. As you can tell from Faith's sweatshirt the weather was chilly that day, unlike the beautiful weather on Easter weekend. The girls both loved their new outfits.

On Saturday Nana came to celebrate Easter with us. We packed as much fun in as we could! The girls hunted for their Easter bags, we colored eggs (only pink and purple), made a fun "basket" cake that was a bit of a creative disaster but tasted good, and then got dressed up for church. Our family went to our church's Saturday evening service. Grace made a set of eggs that helped tell the story of Easter. She absolutely loved it and was showing them to anyone who would listen including my dad's Sunday School class the next day. We spent the night at Gramy & Papa's house.

On Easter the kids wore their super cute outfits. We attended church with my family. After church we went to my grandma's house for lunch. She had an Easter egg hunt just for the girls. I always loved the Easter egg hunts she did for us kids when we were little. We always found a few eggs months later. In fact when her house was damaged in the fire they found one in the rubble from when we were little! One of our funnier Eater memories this year was when Uncle Cody took Grace for a walk in the pasture to see his cows. They found a "sleeping" calf that Grace was excited to pet. (It had been killed by lightning, luckily Grace believed Uncle Cody that it was sleeping ;)

Later that day we went back to Gramy & Papa's house for another hunt. Even though the girls were starting to get worn out from a full weekend their excitement returned when they found all their treasures hiding in the yard.

My favorite quote from Grace, "Mom, drive this van and take me to see where Jesus' cross is."

This Easter as I held my only son in my arms I felt a deeper appreciation then ever before for the great sacrifice God made by sending his only son to redeem me. The depth of God's love is beyond my comprehension.

Titus-10 Weeks

My little guy is growing SO fast! I love these new pictures my mom took. He is such a sweetie and I am totally in love. I finally posted his 5 1/2 week pictures here. I told you he was changing fast!

Grateful

My life sometimes feels like an endless "to do" list. And I am a task-oriented person so I know I sometimes miss the things God is trying to teach me. But, I've found when God repeats something multiple times he is usually trying to get my attention. Recently the word He has been trying to impress on my heart is gratitude.

The Sunday Titus was born we heard a sermon on the prescription for worry. Our minister challenged us to make a list of things we were grateful for. He explained that being grateful would cure us of worry. I was sitting in church thinking, "I will have to do a blog post and make my list." I'm not a chronic worrier but thought it sounded like a good idea....little did I know later that day I would have a chance to test my ability not to worry in a very real way when Titus made his surprise emergency arrival!! (Not sure I passed the test.)

Then when we were visiting Kristina she had each of the girls tell something they were grateful for before they went to bed. She also did a great post on her gratitude list & challenged anyone who read it to do the same. I once again thought, I should make a list...

I am currently reading, "Becoming More Than A Good Biblestudy Girl" by Lysa Terkeurst. Once again the idea of gratitude was one of the subjects she discusses in the book. It was this third time of seeing the subject that God started to get my attention.

I also noticed something in Grace's prayers. She started praying every day, "Thank you for daddy's job." She has been saying it each time she prays. She often says Thank you for... followed by a list of things. I think this caught my attention because she originally would say she wanted God to pick a different job for daddy.

By this time I was convinced God was prompting me to make my own list of things I am grateful for. But, I've struggled to set aside the time. Then last week God really hurt my feelings. Something happened that made me very frustrated with where we are at in seeking his direction for our lives. We seem to be in a period of waiting. While my level of contentment with this "waiting period" goes up and down with emotion, last week I decided I had enough. I was tired of trying to be "spiritual" and act like I loved where we were at. So, I have been pouting. (I know not very spiritual) And I definitely didn't feel like making a list of things I was grateful for! But, I've tried to be honest with God about my struggles. The thing that kept coming to mind was that God has really hurt my feelings & I knew this was a chapter I had just read in Lysa's book. But, I had to go back and read the chapter again because for the life of me I couldn't remember what she said to do...

She gave two helpful thoughts:

- Asking why is the wrong question. A better question is, "Now that this has happened, WHAT am I supposed to do with it?"

-It takes time.

The truth of the matter is I'm not sure what the answer is to the above question yet. But, God has been clear in impressing on my heart that we need to take time to learn what he is teaching and heal. And that takes time. (ugh!) So, how do I find contentment to wait? God has been showing me all along. Make a gratitude list, find a way to be grateful for where we are and stop obsessing with where we are going. So simple to type, so complicated to do. But, its time to be obedient and let God work on helping my feelings to follow.

I am grateful....

-that God is faithful even when I am not.

-that God is patient, I find being patient incredibly difficult!! And it is one of the things I truly desire to develop.

-for my husband. God really knew what he was doing pairing us up. He compliments me and challenges me in a wonderful way.

-for Grace because being her mom will help me develop the patience I long for.

-for Faith because she makes me laugh.

-for Titus because his very presence reminds me he is a miracle.

-for our grey shower because I hardly ever clean it and it doesn't look dirty. (gross but true)

-for my friend Rhiannon because I have never had a friend like her, and God has taught me a lot through our friendship.

-for my parents because they are simply amazing, and I feel truly blessed that God put me in our family.

-for my "girls" (my group of college girlfriends that I continue to "do life with" even if it is long distance.)

-for Laura Moore and her mentorship.

-for our home.

-for my bed & uninterrupted sleep. (when I can get it)

-for the generosity of families who share "handed down" clothes with my children.

-for the opportunity to do my dream job, being a stay at home mom.

-for discovering what a blog is and the joy writing this blog brings me.

-cooking, it is one of my favorite things to do.

-traveling places.

-the sub pump that is keeping our basement from flooding.

-for my kids' rest time because it keeps me sane.

-for Spring, and changing seasons.

-for my husband's job, during a season where many face unemployment we are blessed to have an income.

-for wise Christians Jeremy and I are able to call as seek advice from.

-for sunshine.

-for my minivan (dorky, but what else would hold 3 carseats so nicely?)

-for endless hugs and kisses from my kidos.

-for the opportunity to be involved with missions while living in the midwest.

-for my cell phone.

-and so many more things I am working on noticing as I live my daily life.

Here are a few photos of things I am grateful for:

Titus' chubby cheeks-I can't kiss them enough!
Rest Time- apparently if you want your strong-willed four year old to actually sleep all you have to do is build a tent. Who knew?
Love when the girls play dress up, it reminds me of fun memories from my childhood.
Faith has her baby in a "sling" (a polka dot dress up dress) just like me. I am so thankful I get to influence my kids every day as a stay at home mom.
When my kids plan a tea party for me!

When the girls pick flowers for me!

When my husband helps me make a "fence" for our driveway so the kids can go outside and play in our backyard!

What are you grateful for?

Faith Like A Child

Lately Grace has been very interested in Heaven, acting out Bible stories, & Jesus' death on the cross. Here are some of the ways I've seen her faith developing:

* She drew the above picture of three crosses. She has been asking who the other people were and why they died.

* She continues to ask an unending string of questions about Heaven. What will it be like? When will we go there? How will we get there? Will our yellow house be there? And on and on....

* She asked me why Jesus had to die. I explained he had to die so that we could go to Heaven and be with God. She then replied, "Mama, couldn't God have found another way?" I sadly explained, "No, this was the only way." She thinks its like a destination that you just need to find another route.

*She has been acting out Bible stories with Faith. She has a sparkly blue dress up dress for Mary & a veil/wings for the angel. I have heard her say, "Don't be afraid you are going to have a baby." & "I am rolling away the stone," while rolling around my exercise ball.

*At our church she made a set of "story eggs." Since then she has taught anyone who will listen the story of Easter. She even visited my dad's Sunday School class to tell them. She knows what each one means.

I have found such joy in seeing her grow in her faith. I pray she will continue to have this enthusiasm for Scripture.