Long Overdue Explanation

For anyone who may possibly be checking my blog, I felt like I should give you a brief explanation to my lack of posts lately. It's not that I've run short on time (though that happens often), but I've really been considering the purpose of my blog. I don't want it to just be something that highlights all the fun things our family is doing. Sometimes that can be discouraging as I personally often measure myself (yes, fear of man...live in the Gospel more, Tiff) by others and the amazing things they are doing with their kids. So for now, I've put the blog "away" until I figure out it's real purpose. Thanks for understanding!!!

All Tucked In!

Apparently Caleb didn't think the "tucking in" job I did was good enough! He was sound asleep!

Twice is a Charm!

How can a child less than 3 years old have already gotten stitches twice? That, my friends, is Caleb. Last Saturday night, our fun Chick-fil-a meal with friends was interrupted by the screams and blood-covered face of our middle son. Being our second time doing the "stitches thing," we immediately knew we were headed to the ER. Jeremy took Caleb took the bathroom (and yes, I busted in the men's after them!), stopped the bleeding, and we left. Thankfully our friends, David and Hannah, were with us. They watched Stephen and Jonathan as we checked Caleb in at Wake Med Children's Emergency Room (our first trip to this hospital).

Soon after, Jeremy took them home and Caleb and I waited to be called back. Our awesome neighbor Celeste stayed with Stephen and Jonathan while Jeremy drove back to the hospital.

As terrible as Caleb looked, he was a champ. Seriously, he bounced all over that waiting room like nothing was wrong. Of course, when they put him in the "hug thing," "taco wrap," "straight jacket,"--whatever you choose to call it, he became hysterical. I could only see his little face as he screamed, "Mommy, get me down. It hurts." And at that moment, I think it was hurting me more than him.

After 4 stitches and Tylenol with codeine, life was good! He ate a popsicle, watched TV, and declared to me and the nurses that he didn't want to leave. We did have a good experience there, I must admit.

One of the "God things" about all this was that the girl working Saturday night to "calm and distract the kids" was an Institute girl from last summer who served with Jeremy and Summit Kids. She knew who we were as soon as she saw our name on the check-in list. Lauren took great care of us, brought Caleb blocks, toys, and books, and even gave him a special teddy bear with a bandaid over his eye when we left (appropriately named Boo-Boo). I was so thankful to have Lauren there with me!

So, there you have it...2 sets of stitches later, and the boys are still going strong. The phrase I keep asking myself since then and every day..."Is this normal???????".

9 Years

This past weekend Jeremy and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Stephen and Caleb stayed with some friends of ours in Winston, and Jonathan stayed with my parents. We stayed at a nice place in Blowing Rock Thursday-Saturday. It was so fun having some time with just the 2 of us. I sure do love that guy!

PS-Sorry about the random picture sizes. We used Jeremy's phone and apparently I didn't download them right.=)


"People watching" on Main Street in Blowing Rock


Me and Mildred (the bear) at Grandfather Mountain


Jeremy being silly (The boys thought it was a real bear when we sent this pic to them!)


Fireworks at a local resort Friday night...we watched them from our sunroom


Grandfather Mountain


We hiked up to the bridge on a route that took us under it.


What was he thinking?


Almost at the top!


Lunch at Daniel Boone Inn

Chalk-Time!

It was so cool this morning (seriously?) that the boys and I decided to put our new sidewalk chalk to good use. Notice all the body outlines I did! They loved this (til they realized how hot it was!).

Oh Caleb...

What a funny blessing Caleb is to our family! He keeps us laughing and on our toes. Here are a couple quick stories from the past few days worth noting:

-He lost his blankie today. Yep, we looked for nearly 3 hours and never found it. The boys even skipped their naps, because Caleb can't sleep without it. Finally, Jeremy found it in the washing machine. I guess Caleb thought it was dirty!

-Tonight Caleb pulled a stuffed dinosaur out of a "Goodwill bag" I had in the van. We were on our way to church to pick up Jeremy. Caleb asked me why we were taking the dinosaur to church (uhm...we were taking him to Goodwill). I didn't respond. He then said, "Is it because he needs to be saved?" Again, I didn't respond!

-This morning Caleb told me Happy Anniversary (it's our 9 year today!) and that he had a special gift for me. I asked him what it was, and he proudly said "a stick." He immediately followed that up with, "Mommy, do you know what a stick is?" Of course I do, we've got 3 little boys in this house!

-Stephen and Caleb watched our wedding video today. I snuck outside to call Jeremy. Caleb busted through the front door nearly in tears saying, "They threw rocks at Daddy and killed him." What? After some explaining, I understood that he saw our friends throwing flower petals at us as we left for our Honeymoon and assumed they were rocks. Poor Daddy!

Okay, I lied...all those actually happened TODAY! One from yesterday would be Caleb's sweet prayer:

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for dying on the cross and buying me dinosaurs. Thank you for my fingers and my fingernails and help me not to bite them anymore. Amen."

And the picture above, yep, that was him today, riding his scooter to the library, complete with a water gun and swim goggles!

Thank You, Lord, for our funny little guy!=)

Caleb Goes to the Movies

Today Caleb went to his first movie, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." The theatre does $1 movies for kids during the summer, but of course the money we spent on popcorn and drinks costs a little more than that! Stephen sat with some of his buddies and acted like an old pro at that kind of thing! Caleb drank drinks, ate, watched the movie some, and played on my phone a little also. Jonathan bounced around everywhere and finally got in the carrier to take a power nap. It was a great experience, and I'm excited that Caleb can possibly start going on Daddy dates to the movies now!=)

Triangle Kids Camp

Like last year, Stephen and I were blessed to go with Jeremy and lots of kids/leaders from the Summit to camp for a few days. I LOVE this time! Camp was great this year, and it's always fun to interact with the kids. Some of them, honestly, I think I see once a year...at camp. It's crazy! The leaders were awesome this year, and Jeremy (and the Summit) is so blessed to have them serving our families.

The best part of camp for me, though, is the time I get with Stephen. Caleb and Jonathan stay with my parents (I missed them terribly), but Stephen gets to go with the big kids. He stays in a room with me and Jeremy, and he and I hang out constantly. We even sleep in a single bed together! I know he'll be old enough to actually go to camp soon, and I'll miss this time special time we share. It was a fun week for all of us!

Gate-Time

Guess who figured out how to climb the steps yesterday??? The gates gonna have to go back up!

Mini-Nightmare

After blogging about the beach, I must admit that I don't really like it that much. The grimy sand and sticky feeling...yuck! If it weren't for our boys, Jeremy and I would probably go to the beach but never actually set foot in the sand or go in the ocean. We're just not "beach people."

So when Jonathan got fussy last week and wanted to nap, there was only 1 thing to do...put him in the dreadful baby carrier. First, it kills my back (he's 10 months old for goodness sake). Second, he was wet and sandy. Third, it was blistering hot out there.

Did he go to sleep? Of course. And did I survive this "mini-nightmare" of mine? Yes, and everyone was happy and had a great, sandy time! But don't let my fake smile fool you!=)

Give Them Grace

I just finished reading Elyse Fitzpatrick's book Give Them Grace, and it was awesome. Jeremy keeps asking me if I like it more than Gospel-Powered Parenting, and I just can't decide. They're both so good, so Gospel-centered, and so challenging. Give Them Grace made me very aware of how often we parent our boys under the law and not grace. It also relieved some of the pressure I put on myself to be a "good Mom" by reminding me that God is really the one in control of the boys' futures. All of that said, here are some of my favorite quotes (and I'm limiting it...there were S0 many!):

"What percentage of your time is spent in declaring the rules and what percentage in reciting the Story?"

"Everything that isn't Gospel is law."

"If not rooted in gratitude for God's love for us in Christ, morality is deadlier to the soul than immorality."

"You cannot raise good kids, because you are not a good parent."

"When we're quietly resting in grace, we'll have grace to give our children, too. When we're freed from the ultimate responsibility of being their savior, we'll find our parenting burden becoming easy and light."

"We have far too high a view of our ability to shape our children and far too low a view of God's love and trustworthiness."

"Parenting with grace isn't another set of rules for you to follow. It's a story that you're to rejoice in. Share the story with your children. Show them the Savior. Show them Jesus. Dazzle them with his love."

"Our children, both the 'bad' ones and the 'good' ones, need to hear his message of entreaty. 'My arms are open to you; all that is mine is yours. Come and delight in my generous mercy'."

"We hinder our children from coming to him when we inadvertently teach them that the good news is meant for good people."

That's where I'll stop, because I feel like I'm not doing the book justice by pulling out quotes here and there. The ones above came from the first 4 chapters, and there are 10 chapters in the book! It was so good that I even highlighted in the foreword and introduction.

GET IT! It will challenge and relieve you at the same time!

New Scooter

Our little man was thrilled last night when his Daddy came home from work with a new scooter! Stephen had been waiting weeks for this! His got stolen the other week from the library, and although he handled it well (and it gave us a great opportunity to talk about the Gospel), he definitely missed it. Daddy was a big hero when Stephen first saw his new one. He rode in the parking lot last night until it was nearly too dark to see. Score for Daddy!

Third...

Jonathan fell asleep in his carseat sucking a dum-dum while we were at the beach...proving again...he's the third!=)

Family Beach Trip!

Last week we took a family trip to the beach. It was wonderful having several days with just the 5 of us. I admit, though, that it wasn't relaxing by any means. Did I expect it to be with 3 little boys? Not really, but it was lots of fun. I keep telling myself that I'll miss these crazy "vacations" in the future when Jeremy and I are left looking at each other in an empty, quiet beach house.=) I'll explain the fun things we filled our week with below (oh, and I forgot my camera, so these pictures are courtesy of Jeremy's phone!):


Our family taking a picture of ourselves


Me and the boys at Southpoint


Stephen took this pic of me and Jeremy


The boys playing putt-putt


The aquarium at Fort Fisher (we went twice using our zoo membership to get in free!)


Candy store at Holden Beach


Riding the ferry over to the aquarium


Caleb "belly surfing"


Jonathan ate lots of sand (Gross)!


Stephen had so much fun (we especially enjoyed our day on the beach with Chad, Dawn, and their boys!)


Jonathan trying on hats (poor thing...we do whatever to him!)


Jeremy and Jonathan the day we stopped at the Battleship

The Antics of Caleb

Our 2 year old is at it again! These are his latest endeavors the past 2 days:


Caleb got into the stamp drawer today and had a great time. All was well until he started stamping his legs, arms, etc. It got even better when he decided to use the red ink pad as a stamp and do even more artwork on his little feet! This picture doesn't do it justice!


Here's the way Caleb went to bed the other night...no shirt on and shorts on his head. After a while, though, I heard the cry for Mommy to come and put his shirt on!

Where does this little boy get these ideas? Who knows; I'm just convinced that everyone needs a Caleb!=)

KidsWeek

What a fun, tiring week for everyone in this house! KidsWeek (VBS-Summit style!) has been going on, and we've had a GREAT time! I'll hit some highlights below (since I'm going to bed...exhausted!).


Tonight's conclusion with lots of blow-up fun!


Caleb's attempt at the dunk tank!


Slides!


Do you see any pennies? Nope, Stephen got them out to help the boys win the penny war!

Welcome Home

We have the best neighbors! Seriously! The Bloomfield family is such a blessing to us. We didn't know when we moved in that our neighbors would be Summit members, with 2 kids, who are also planning to homeschool like ourselves! We love them!

The past month this family has been in Kenya, and we have missed them terribly. So, Wednesday, before they came back, we made signs for them and hung in them in their living room. We're looking forward to playing with them lots again very soon!!!