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!