More frozen beauty.

The many faces of Luke.

I love to snap pictures of Luke. I love the looks of distress on his face because I am forcing him to sit still for a half a second to get a picture. He gets so squirmy and suddenly has something extremely important that he needs to do. Its almost like its painful for him. Maybe its torture? I don't know. Its the kind of "torture" he's gonna have to live with having me as his mother. If forcing him to sit still for twenty seconds to snap a few pictures is as bad as it gets for him then I think he can consider himself fortunate!!

How can I resist trying to capture his eyes??!!

Another snow day.

First things first.

Pancakes.
Then snow play.
Then cookies!
Before bath time the view from my upstairs hallway window looked like this.
...then we wake up to a two hour delay this morning:)

Boy stuff.

Jessalyn pretty much keeps all of her "girly" stuff in her own room, knowing that it is likely not safe anywhere else in this house. I find myself giggling at all of the random 'boy things' that I find spread throughout the house. One of my favorite little toys is this magnetic Spider Man. The boys go around and find the most random places where he will 'stick'.

If you were to walk into our house it would be very clear that we have lots of boys. Because Jessalyn keeps her stuff so well taken care of you may not even know that a little girl lives here too!
(Disclaimer: This ginormous Yoda Pez dispenser has been placed on the top of a tall cabinet. I had to climb on the couch to take a picture of it, which was when I realized just how dusty it is up there!)

New Beginnings.

Everyone loves the New Year for its potential of what is new to come! We all set out to live life better making changes big and small to attempt this overall goal. Sure, we all start slipping away from these 'resolutions'...but that is why we get a New Year EVERY year! Imagine if nobody even tried to make changes in their lives.

What a better way to think of New Beginnings than a new engagement! A week ago, my sil became engaged. I couldn't help but steal her ring for a few minutes in hopes of capturing its beauty. Unfortunately, none of these photos do the ring justice. It is truly a BEAUTIFUL ring.




It is fun to sort of re-live the excitement of becoming married. I don't envy the work that needs to be done before that moment....but the excitement of their lives to come is, well...exciting!!

Mornings.

Some mornings are better than others. It seems like some days we are running around like crazy trying to get ourselves together in time to get Jessalyn to school on time. It also seems like the rest of the day follows the pattern of the morning.

Some morning are much more relaxed. Fortunately, this has been more of the pattern for us these days. Its nice to be up and have breakfast ready for Josh and Jessalyn so that they can do their devotions together. I like having most of the morning 'chores' done before we even leave for school. Our day flows better, the kids behave better.....I behave better.

Its not every morning that we have time to snuggle up with our siblings and play the Leapster before heading out the door.

Cold Days

As much as I hate ice buildup like this on our windows, I have to admit to the beauty of it. The designs on here are much like snowflakes.

Its on days like these when we have to be more creative in how to entertain ourselves. Jenga has become a recent favorite.

One of my new favorite sites to check in on daily is Shutter Sisters. I find it hard to go there and NOT come out with some sort of inspiration. Today's post over there was about photographing hands. Obviously, hands have been already focus for me and my 365 blog...but it has only been my hands. I had a couple of opportunities to snap a few other hands today.

(if only he didn't have that big scratch on his nose)

A fancy little girl.

Jessalyn is growing up right before our eyes. It seems like every other week she is into a new shoe size and acting more and more mature. I wonder how long she will be fascinated with all the girly decor in her room?

I have been given a blog award!!

I have a dear friend from across the states that I have not actually met in person. We "met" online when we were pregnant with our Oct 04 babies. We quickly found that we have many things in common. We found it amazing that we actually had a common friend..someone she went to college with and someone that I knew from before college days! I am sure that if (or WHEN!) we manage to get together some day our families would get along wonderfully. Someday:)

This friend, Amy...from The Mommy Chronicles, passed along this award to me:)


There are some rules when you receive this award and they are simple (although difficult at the very same time!):

Pass this award onto five other blogs that you love.

I read Amy's blog last night and saw that I was in fact given this award...but spent the evening (in all of my "just won an award" delight..tee hee) trying to decide which five, of the MANY, blogs I enjoy that I would pass the award onto.

After much consideration :) I would like to pass the award on to the next five people! (Keeping in mind that had I gotten this award from someone other than Amy I would have definitely passed it on to her!).

The Fab 5.

1. Laura at Have Two, They're Small. Laura writes the cutest stories about her family and has two of the cutest kids! Her story is a wonderful encouragement as she shares the family that she has after dealing with infertility and loss.

2. Nicole at M.other O.f M.ayem. Nicole is also a mother of two who balances her home and her nursing career very well. She is an extremely insightful person who has shared great amounts of her wisdom with me! If I was in the ICU..I'd want Nicole to be my nurse:) One of my most recent favorite posts of hers is HERE...read it. Did I mention that she's also very funny?

3. Karole-Ann at The Life of D, A and S. Karole-Ann is one of my best friends. Her three boys are just about the same ages as my three boys. If you were to ask my boys who their best friends are they would answer with the names of Kann's kids! We have so much in common that when we get together, even after being apart for months..it seems like no time has passed. I love this blog because I miss having my best friends living right down the street...so checking this blog is the next best thing!

4. Sharon at Mrs. Haires Xanga. Mrs. Haire is the mother of one of the teens in our youth group. She drives a Harley, has a blog and facebook....and I think I might actually be related to her now since her older daughter married my brother in law:) She's one cool lady who's blog is filled with encouragement..even in the rough times. (although, she should be persuaded to switch to blogger or something..since I can't comment on her blog without a xanga account!)

5. Charolotte at Life in Guatemala. Charlotte is living in Guatemala serving with the Peace Corp. She shares on her blog some of the most interesting things about life there. When she's home she is someone that Jessalyn looks up to and loves to swim with in the summer! (her parents are pretty cool too!)

There are so many other blogs that I would have loved to share this award with...I love ALL of the blogs that I read!

So there ya go...take your awards and go share them with your favorite 5!

A cute Owen story.

The other day the kids and I sat down to eat dinner (Josh was at a meeting). This night we had decided to eat pancakes for dinner and in trying to keep Owen occupied while I got it all out on the table I gave him a pancake sooner than everyone else. When we were ready to eat the three big kids instantly reached out to each other and were about to hold hands and pray..but I told them that we didn't need to hold hands tonight (because Owen was all sticky from having already eaten part of his pancake and he sits next to me!). Everyone was ok with this idea, so Jessalyn started to pray and I had my eyes closed when next thing I know I have this sticky little hand holding on to mine! It was so sweet (and sticky!)...but the fact that Owen knew that the normal routine would be to hold my hand while we pray and for him (at 20 months old) to recognize 'when' we are praying and what we are 'supposed' to do during the prayer made me happy!

...he almost always has the most enthusiastic "Amen" around our table. It sounds more like "mamen", but its pretty clear what his intentions are!