34 by 34...

Once again it's that time of year....birthday time.  I am party planner through and through, not so much a party person.  I don't get real jazzed about the "Big Day" and my idea of a great birthday is low key with great friends and good food!  I know for some of you that is unreal, because the hub's as a matter of fact is a huge birthday person (which works out nicely when your married to a party planner :)).  I am just not wired that way.

The danger though is that I can be very negative about my birthday and needless to say the Lord has been challenging my thinking these past few weeks.  Lets be honest, I am melancholy by nature and can be pretty negative when I want to be.  So I've been asking myself, what is it that makes me dislike my birthday?  Perhaps unaccomplished goals or being one year closer to passing the baby birthing age or maybe even another year in a house that is not my own.  Whatever the cause, when I dwell on the reasons I am discontent I fail to remember this one thing....I have been given another year of life!  Another year to serve Him, with new goals, a roof over my head, a precious baby boy and an amazing man to walk beside me and remind me just how special birthdays are.  Looking back on the past year, with all I have been blessed with, I should be overflowing with joy!  And that is cause for celebration!

So here's how I intend to celebrate and I hope you will join me!  Since giving and serving others brings me so much joy, I can't imagine a better way to celebrate this past year and start a new one.  What better way to do this than to complete 34 Random Acts of Kindness by my 34th birthday, this Saturday!  I'm calling it 34 by 34!  With only 5 days to go, I am hoping you will help me get there.  Just complete a Random Act of Kindness (RAK), take a picture and tag #hj34by34 on Facebook or Instagram.  

Some ideas might be....

*Tape change to a vending machine

*Write a thank you note and leave it for your mailman

*Bring your child's teacher flowers

*Send a letter to a soldier serving overseas 

*Anonymously pay for someone's dinner at a restaurant

*Purchase a gift card at the grocery store and hand it to the person behind you in line

*Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive through 

*Help an elderly person unload groceries

*Hand out water bottles at a sporting event

*Bring lunch to a homeless person

*Donate food to the local food bank

It's up to you, no need to get elaborate, it's about blessing others because you have been blessed!  I hope you will join me in making this a birthday to remember. 

Many Blessings!

Catching up...

It's hard to believe it has been 9 months since the last time I posted to this blog!  Needless to say it has been a VERY LONG 9 months and so much has happened/changed.  So just like old friends, let me try to catch you up...

December 2012....Probably will go down in history as the hardest December on record.  Between sick baby, sick mommy and choosing to stay in New York for Christmas the Holiday spirit just didn't seem the same.  Perhaps the sweetest part in all of it was the mail man coming to our door every day for a week with package deliveries from friends and family.  The little man even asked if the mail man was Santa :).  Since Christmas consisted of just the 3 of us, we created some new traditions and spent Christmas day with some very precious friends!  

As I said, baby was sick!  Poor little man just had one ear infection after another...it was a rough month!

January 2013....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  To be honest I don't really remember how we rang in the new year, deep down I think 2012 had been a rough year and I was just glad to see it end.  January was filled with bible studies, conference planning, trips to the museum with little mans best friend Macy and lots of play dates.  I was blessed to have some of the best mommy friends!!  The only down side was a continued sick baby :(.  We spent the last week of the month moving into our new rental right next to our church!!  We loved all the space and the HUGE yard.

February 2013...Little man had his first Valentines Day Party!  We invited all his toddler buddies, along with their mommies, over for a fun and food.  It was truly a great time and something we will continue doing.  We also started a new tradition of Valentines Day Date as a family.  Not to worry, the hubs and I got out for a date that weekend.  We continued to struggle with ear infection after ear infection.  I praise God for such an amazing doctor who helped us work through this rough time.  Little man saw an ear specialist who confirmed tube surgery was necessary.  We were not thrilled with the demeanor of the specialist we saw.  We continued to pray and God showed up!  Our wonderful doctor called to see how it went and was not thrilled.  Scheduled us in with a pediatric specialist in March!

March 2013...Was BUSY!!!  We saw God move in great ways in our student ministry through the PINK Conference.  The best part was having Grandma come for the week to spend time with little man and also getting to meet a new buddy Noah!   The day after we said goodbye to grandma we boarded a plane to Omaha, Nebraska to visit good friends.  Not surprising to us, little man ended up with yet another ear infection while on vacation.  Thankfully God worked in mighty ways and we were able to get in to an actual pediatrician instead of going to the ER!  

Shortly after returning home we celebrated Easter!!  We took the little man to a farm to hunt eggs, meet live bunnies and ride the train.  He had a blast!!!  We spent Easter Sunday with our dear friends the Fortney's and celebrated with a traditional ham dinner.  

April 2013...Met with the pediatric ENT specialist who confirmed the little man would need surgery for tubes and potentially adenoids.  We loved her!!  The reality of his sickness hit a low during the hearing test.  During the testing it was difficult to see him not respond to any low sounds due to muffled hearing.  The results came back and he had little to no hearing in the lower register.  Our sweet doctor informed us he had probably been hearing that way since 18 months old.  

April also brought so MAJOR change as the hubs accepted a position as associate pastor at a church in Omaha, NE.  We spent a good majority of April packing and preparing for surgery and our big move.  

May 2013...Was nothing short of INSANITY!  Right off the bat the little man had surgery to put in tubes and remove his adenoids (which were blocking 70% of his nasal passage).  Daddy had strep over mothers days and mommy...well we discovered my sickness was all related to a severe mold allergy and mold in the house we were renting.  And all of that in the first 15 days of May!!  We began looking for temporary housing until we moved, SO thankful for great friends!!!

We also visited Thomas the Train with our little mans buddy Andrew.  I headed to Nebraska in the middle of the month to find housing.  Shortly after I returned we finished packing and the trailer arrived.  Little man dubbed it our "Conbraska Truck" and it brought a weekend of toddler fascination!

June 2013...We said some of the hardest goodbyes to some very special people, loaded up our lives and headed to Nebraska!  Along the way we took a much needed family vacation...with a toddler...and a dog...and a packed out van?!?! :)  I'm sure we will recap all the fun in our summer bucket list blog, stay tuned!  A huge highlight was seeing our very dear friend and prior student Micah!  We arrived in Nebraska and stayed with our great friends for 2 weeks while we waited for our rental to be ready.  We explored spray grounds, shopping malls and generally just worked on getting settled.  We made so great new friends and had play dates at the zoo.  

July 2013...We began doing some major unpacking and enjoyed seeing things we hadn't seen in seven months due to our last rental being furnished.  We celebrated fourth of July by walking in a toddler parade, bar-b-que'ing with new friends and MOST insane fireworks display I have ever seen, pretty sure the entire city was lighting them.  Our travels took us to Oklahoma for a wedding and to Kansas City for the little ones first experience at an amusement/water park with our students!  Much to the joy of the hubs the little man LOVED the roller coaster, but even more exciting was how much he adored the water park :).  I have never had so much fun as spending the day just the two of us.  We rode rides together and splashed around, it was just to much fun!!  

August 2013...That brings us to the present month!  Things have slowed down and we are just enjoying the end of Summer.  In just a short month we will be starting a very busy Fall!  The little man will taking violin lessons, swim classes and tumbling.  We are also attempting this thing called home school.  He is not old enough yet for pre-school, but there will be plenty to do at home!  No doubt the fall will be filled with pumpkin picking, zoo trips, museum fun, family visits and even a trip for mommies birthday.  I can hardly wait!!    

Hope you stick around for all the fun!

Blessings!!!

Mommy Moments...

As our little man is getting older, and more vocal, there are so many little things I don't want to forget.  It's the little things that happen on a daily basis that remind me just how blessed I am.  I call them my mommy moments.  Today was one of the funniest and most precious...

While getting ready for bed, he made a loud noise and scared me...

Me: "Jaed*n you scared mommy"

(Putting his hands on either side of my face)

Jaedy:  "Oh, shhhhh, come here mommy.  It's okay mommy" (giving me a big hug :))

Conversation...

Jaedy:  "Be gentle with mommy"

Me:  "Yes, why are you gentle with mommy?"

Jaedy: "Mommies a girl.  Awe, jaedy gentle (hugging my neck)"

Me:  "That's right, gentle with girls."

I truly love how he is learning what it means to treat girls gently and I certainly LOVE being the recipient of all the hugs and kisses along the way :).

Blessings!

A Zoo of a Birthday...

For the little man's 2nd birthday we decided to hold his party at the zoo.  Since the zoo is one of his favorite place, we knew it would be the perfect place to celebrate.  The zoo staff was absolutely wonderful and handled everything for us, including decorations, food, crafts and even a demo of 3 live animals!  We brought in a cupcake cake complete with "Emmo" and "Big Birdie" (as J would say) and party favors for all the kids.  It was a very memorable party...

The kids all loved their animal sippers!

A zoo party isn't complete without Zoo Tatoo's!

Showing daddy his Zoo Tatoo!

The first animal demo was a Tortes! 

The party host did a great job telling the kids all about the animals!

All the kids got a chance to touch the Tortes.

Next they brought out a snake.  Lets just say mommy stayed on the other side of the room!

The boys really liked the snake!

The Chinchilla was a hit!

Daddy helped J pet the Chinchilla, he loved it!

Even the adults wanted to pet the Chinchilla.

Such a cute little animal!

Time to sing!

J could hardly wait for cake!

Presents!!!

After the party we spent some time walking around the zoo.

J enjoyed finding every puddle to splash in!

Counting Down to 2...

It's hard to believe but we are approaching baby J's 2nd birthday!  One of the most precious parts of passing my birthday and approaching his is that both days hold such special meaning when it comes to our little guys adoption story.  It was on my birthday, just 2 short years ago, that we met the precious young woman who chose to give us the most amazing gift (you can read more about that here).  September 7th, 2010 will forever be far more than just a birthday.  That day lead to baby J's birth, the beginning of an amazing relationship and the end of a journey (you can read more about that here).   We have seen God's hand's all over this little guys life and we truly believe there are those out there who need to hear his story.  

So in honor of baby J's big day, I am going to try and finish his story this year.  Please bear with me as life is a little crazy these days, but I will do my best.

Blessings!

In A Word Wednesday...

Just a few I don't want to forget...

• Exki-ded = Excited
• Mommy Jaedy dry pants! (every time he goes potty)
• Pee Pee potty, keep pants dry.
• Aww, Roxy girl love you.
• Mommy Janson, Daddy Janson.
• You go od-er der (over there).
• Robbie do's basketball, Hunter do's baseball!
• Very hot! (every time I'm using the stove)
• Love you moon a back.
• 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10...20's....9,10, 40's...yay counting (still not sure where he got 20's and 40's)
• Wochte Dog.  Wyan Wochte swimmer.  (He named his stuffed dog Lochte Dog after Ryan Lochte.  Guess we watched the olympics just a bit :)). 

The little man has started singing and praying on his own now, it does take a little help when he get stuck.  I wish I could bottle his little voice and how precious he sounds.  We still cannot get him to do it on camera, maybe soon.  It sounds like this...

Bedtime prayer:

Now way me, down seep, pway woord, sole keep. Jesus watch me, fru night, keep me safe, mornings wight. AMEN!

Dinner prayer:

God is great, God is good, and tank Him, for food. AMEN!

He really loves when he gets to the amen, he throws his hands up and yells "AMEN".  He loves to sing Jesus Loves me and I am quite surprised at how well he sings it.  

The biggest accomplishment (other than potty training) has been learning to count to 10.  He has a hard time with 3 and 4, but gets them eventually.  His favorite time to count is going up the stairs.  He counts each step.  

Blessings!

Poo at the Zoo...

I'm not quite sure what it is about the magical power of the Zoo, but today the little man went the big #2 on the potty!  I know it's not a big deal to the average joe, but to this mommy we are ecstatic!  What we thought would take months to learn has taken a week.  He followed up his big poo at the zoo moment by doing the same at the church later in the afternoon!  I am still in shock that I have a 22 month old using the potty and to no credit of my own.  He is doing this all on his own and I am so very proud of him!

Way to go little man!!!

Blessings!

Potty Time...

Well it seems I blinked and summer raced by!  In the midst of all the business of trips we decided to give potty training a go.  This was definitely not something I was looking forward to, but knew it was time.  How did I know it was time?  Let me back track for a moment...

In April the little man went for his 18 month check up, which was all fine and good until the pediatrician chose to alter the course of life (okay a bit dramatic I know)!  The conversation went something like this...

Pedi: "He is a very bright little boy"

Me: "Thank you"

Pedi: "I am really shocked, he talks more than most of my girl patients.  With an extensive vocabulary it is a good indication you are probably ready to start potty training."

HOLD THE PHONE....POTTY TRAINING...AT 18 MONTHS!!!  

Let's just say shock doesn't begin to explain my expression, at one point in time I think I actually grabbed the table for stability.  PT had not even begun to cross our minds and starting at the age of 18 months...does this seem abnormal to anyone else???  I agree he is a smart little boy, but potty training?  The handsome hubby and I talked it over and decided with a busy summer ahead we would wait until after vacation, thus buying me the time I needed to prepare myself.  That may seem a selfish statement, but all the parental advice I had received from family and friends was that we needed to be all in if we were going to do this.  And while I do believe at 18 months he was interested, I don't believe he was quite ready, I know now that there is a world of difference between the two.  

So we purchased a potty seat and just let the little man play and explore it.  I spent time reading every possible piece of material I could find on potty training a boy, I talked to moms of boys, read little man every storybook I could find on using the potty, watched potty videos and attended a few potty training classes with him at the local library.  

Fast forward to last week.  We decided right after vacation we would do it, begin potty training!  As soon as we arrived home I spent the weekend preparing for the big day.  We talked about it with our little man and pumped it up.  By Sunday morning I felt like a broken record.  As we were getting ready for church I was about to give the little man a bath.  Daddy stripped him down and he ran in the bathroom.  The little man looked me square in the eyes and said "pee pee", you can guess what followed.  I quickly picked him up and put him on the potty.  He finished peeing and was SO proud, that's when we knew it was definitely time.  After church we took him to the store to pick out his big boy underpants...I have to say that's when the reality hit me and the disbelief that we were doing this at 22 months!

We woke up Monday and began the potty process I found in a great blog post by a fellow pastors wife.  You can find it here.  We chose not to use Pull-Ups at all but rather just start training in big boys underpants.  For nap time and bed time we started by using the Bum Genius cloth diapers I had purchased and never used.  We called them night time pants to keep from calling them diapers.  If you would like all the little details let me know, but I will spare those who don't have little ones with my potty process.   

I wish I could say it was an easy day and he picked it up right away, but let's just say the equation looked more like this...

Strong willed child + even stronger willed mommy (x) potty training = a barrel of monkeys!

It was an exhausting and frustrating experience for both of us.  By Monday night dinnertime we hadn't had a single success.  I told daddy perhaps we weren't ready and we talked about holding off a few more months.  Feeling completely defeated I took the little man up for a bath and bed time.  Out of no where he looked me in the eyes and said "Mommy, go pee pee potty".  So on the little potty he went and suddenly he did it...he began to pee!!!!!  I jumped up and called out to daddy "He went potty!!!" and we began cheering.  All the stress from the day was washed away when his precious little face lit up with a huge smile of accomplishment.  We laughed and cheered.  But that wasn't it, after bath time he asked to potty and once again he went and he hasn't stopped using the potty since.  The next two days were a little rough, but by Thursday he had it down pat, telling me every time he had to use the potty.  Thanks to daddy he actually began to use the big potty on Friday and now prefer's it to the little potty.  

Potty training has definitely left me feeling like an unaccomplished individual as funny as that sounds.  Teaching another human being how to do something, that you yourself have no recollection of learning you just do it, is an extremely daunting task.  But it is SO worth it.  Sure not having to purchase diapers is a blessing, but seeing his face light up each and every time he uses the potty on his own is the greatest accomplishment to me.  I am not always going to be the one who helps him learn how to do big things, but boy am I one proud momma to have had the chance to do this along side him.  

For more details on how we did it, shoot me a comment below.

Blessings!

In A Word Wednesday...

Well our sentence phase has rapidly turned into the conversation phase!  Our little man loves to jabber on and REALLY loves to talk with mommy and daddy.  Even when he's in his crib napping you will hear him talking or singing over the monitor until he finally falls asleep.  I adore him so much and I love this phase in his little life.

Here are a few conversations we had just this week...

Pulling into the garage...

• Little Man: "Tennis...Racket"

• Mommy: "Where sweetie?"

• Little Man: "Right Dare.  Two tennis...racket" (pointing at the rackets on the wall)

Getting ready for bathtime...

• Mommy: "Are you ready to take a bath?" 

•  Little Man: "Yes, yes! Bath disa-bubble bath too, fruog too?"  

•  Mommy: "Yes you may have Mr. Bubble and frog too" 

•  Little Man: "Yeah, disa-bubble, fruog" (laughing and shaking his head)

Morning Routine (when he wakes up)...

• Little Man: "Mommy, where are you?"

• Mommy: "Good morning!"

• Little Man: "Daddy go?"

• Mommy: "Where did daddy go?"

• Little Man: "Daddy go work." (nodding his head)

• Mommy: "That's right daddy did go to work and where does daddy work?"

• Little Man: "Church! Daddy go work, church...yeah."

Story Time...

• Mommy: "What books do you want to read?"

• Little Man: "Bible book....baby signs....lama"

• Mommy: "Who's in your bible books?"

• Little Man:  "Noah....Jesus....puppy dog too"

One afternoon while I was checking email on my laptop...

• Little Man: "Pway, Close it!"
• Mommy:  "Close what sweetie"
• Little Man:  (walking over and shutting my laptop lid)  "No, Close it! Pway, shwizbee"
• Mommy:  "Where do you want me to go play frizbee?"
• Little Man:  (Grabbing my hand and pulling me to the hall) "Seet (sit) down, pway shwizbee"
• Mommy: "Okay mommy sit.
• Little Man:  "YAY, shwizbee, can jam it!"

More vocab...
Lately our little man has been saying some hilariously cute words and with that his current words are changing, which is both exciting and heartbreaking at the same time.  Never before have I felt time was going by as fast as it is now.

Here are a few of his latest:

• Disa-bubble = Mr. Bubble
• Too-ed = Tooted (thanks to a kids song :-/, he loves to say "Mommy too-ed, daddy too-ed, doggie too-ed.  As you can imagine this makes mommy really happy...arg)
• Woshie = Lotion
• Shwizbee = NEW! Frisbee
• No much, no much! = So much, so much
• No wike it = No like it
• Bee-chu = Beat you (when we race :))
• My schuggars = My Sugars (when we give him kisses :))
• Can Jam It! (anytime he throws the frisbee)
• Mommy baby kwy-in.  (anytime he hears a baby cry. sorry that one is hard to spell!)
• Drive, cool car. (anytime he wants to go for a ride in the car)
• Pee pee in potty (NO, we are not potty training just yet)
• Daddy Sing Song
• Pucky Dog is now Puppy Doggie

Learning his name...

We are currently working on teaching our little guy to say his name and learn to recognize the letters.  You can imagine my excitement after a week of asking him how to spell his name he actually said "O"!  Of course that is the only letter, but it's a reoccurring letter in both his first and middle name, progress baby!  He is absolutely obsessed with his middle name so if you ask him what his name is he will most likely respond with "Maaaa-nix" (Maddox).  He says it in the CUTEST WAY!!! I love that he is recognizing his own name!  

Current Fav...

This week my favorite part has been hearing him recite his prayers back to me.  It goes something like this:

• Mommy: "Now I lay me"
• LM: "Now way me"
• Mommy: "Down to sleep"
• LM:  "Down seep"
• Mommy: "I pray the Lord" 
• LM:  "Pray ward"
• Mommy: "My soul to keep"
• LM:  "Soul keep"
• Mommy: "And Jesus watch me"
• LM: "Jedus wach"
• Mommy: "Through the night"
• LM:  "Night"
• Mommy: "Keep me safe"
• LM:  "Keep....safe"
• Mommy: "Till mornings light"
• LM:  "A-MEN!"

Did I mention he closes his eyes and folds his hands the entire time!  I honestly do not know how it is possible that he is picking this up at 21 months, but paint me a proud mama.  He is learning to pray and oh how I love it!

Blessings!

Melt my heart...

Are there things that happen with your kids that just simply melt your heart?  For this momma it was just before bedtime:


Me: "Baby where does Jesus live?"

Little man: "Heaben!" (pointing with both fingers to the sky)

Me: "That's right, where else does He live?"

Little man: "Heart!" (pointing to his heart)


Hearing those precious little words come from his lips, it's a little hard to maintain composer.  I love that my sweet little man is learning about Jesus at such a young age.  Somehow exchanges like this one make me feel like we're doing something right.

Blessings!

In a word...

This week our little one has moved into sentence mode!  I have to admit, as hard as it is to hear him sound so grown up, it is stinkin' adorable.  Here are just a few of the things he has been saying:

• "Where mommy/daddy go?"
• "Thank you mommy/daddy"
• "Milk please mommy"
• "Daddy/Mommy go bye bye"
• "Please have it" or "Please have some"
• "Go bye bye, cool car" (when he wants to go for a ride in the car)
• "Daddy/Mommy read book"
• "I you-ya no much" (I love you so much. For some reason it is "no much" instead of "so much")
• "Via-min time please" (vitamin time, he loves his vitamins!)
• "Go pee-pee/poo-poo on the potty" (we are working on potty training)
• "Go down-ner, puwa wif it" (down there and play with it are ADORABLE! going to miss those)
• "Ro-sy go ni-night" (when we leave and Roxy "Ro-sy" goes in her box)

I keep forgetting to write down what he says as he says it, somehow I think I will just magically remember but I never do :(.  I am sad to say several of the cute little words he would say in his own language are now forming into the proper pronunciation:

• Don-on is now Donna
• Durama is now Grandma
• Basidas is slowly becoming basketball
• Bees-bow is now baseball

But even with these changes "I you-ya"(I love you) still remains the same and I LOVE IT!  We are frequently told that our little one has a huge vocabulary (not even joking, at least 10 strangers made remarks about it just this week) but to be completely honest we don't know any different.  To us he is just a growing little man who talks alot!  We have been asked what we have done and I have absolutely no idea, it is truly just the way God designed him.  We read ALOT of books and have always made it a point to have conversations with him, but does that make the difference?  Like I said we have no idea, he is our first so we have nothing to compare him to.  To this mommy and daddy he is just our little boy, growing up WAY to fast and amazing us every step of the way!

Blessings!

In a word...

These days it seems our precious little man just talks non stop!  He is saying so many words and seems to be right on the verge of full sentences.  Since many of his cute little words are changing from baby j language (as we call it) to the actual word, I thought it would be a good idea to document them before I forget them.  So here we go with the first installment of "In a word..."

• I lu ya = I Love You (:) by FAR my favorite!)
• Bas-i-das or Bas-i-dar = Basketball
• Bees-ball geemes = Baseball (for some reason he doesn't ever just say bees-ball, it's always bees-ball games)
• Foot-bar = Football
• Shwibee or Shrizbee = Frisbee
• Sotter-bar = Soccerball
• Bob build it = Bob the Builder
• Boos Boos = Blues Clues
• Bible Book = Bible stories collection
• Einstein or Baby Bach = Baby Einstein videos
• Durama = Grandma
• Rossi = Roxy (our dog)
• Fuend = Friend
• Cool dude = ANY drummer
• Dwums = Drums
• Cool-tar = Guitar
• Bees = Bass
• Hold You = Hold me
• Whoa Mam = No mam

He is a funny little man too!  He exclaims "FOUR" every time he hits the golf ball and proceeds to say "Oh gosh" if he misses it.  He loves music and is very taken with the "Arky Arky" song.  It's not long after getting in the car that we hear "Noah Noah, Arky Arky" coming from a little voice in the back seat :).  He also LOVES "Oh Happy Day" by Fee, he exclaims "Happy Day! Happy Day!" whenever he hears the intro, not even the lyrics!  He is a very smart little man. 

I feel like there is so much more he says that I am missing, these are just the most memorable/common things he says.  I love the way he talks and all the little things he says, time just needs to slow down a bit!

Blessings!

   

Chair war, croup and a few changes...

Well if your wondering where I have been, let's just say it's been a month! And it's not even half over!

First off the projects haven't stopped, OH NO, I am deep in the throws of an all out WAR with one wingback chair.  Let's just say I WILL NOT be upholstering the second one and a post is coming on the reality of upholstering furniture.  It has not been pretty ladies and gents, it has not been fun, but it is almost done (after 2 weeks!).  If you haven't caught my disdain for this project, just wait!

Unfortunately our poor little love came down with croup!  For the love of Peet, could we just be well for once!  Sick baby/mommy after a while just simply wears you down.  I am so grateful he is such a happy baby all the time, even when he doesn't feel well.  Thankfully it has been a mild case of croup and we caught it early.  When your hubby's job is ministering to a large group of youth, these things are bound to happen.

And speaking of our wonderful students, we are approaching the busy season of graduation, grad parties and missions trips.  It keeps us running, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Finally, who doesn't love a little bit of change every now and then :)...

Over the past few months this blog has focused more on DIY projects than on the life of our family.  It seems daily our little love is growing up SO fast, I feel like I forget things he has done or said.  The point of this blog was to have a record of our little loves life that I could print out yearly and have bound into a book.  At this stage in the game that book would have alot of neat DIY projects, but very little of the everyday.  What kid is really jazzed to read about his mom's crazy adventures with stripping furniture or waring with reupholstering a chair. So to help myself out, and give our little one a record of all the fun things we did as he grew up, I have decided to move all DIY projects to a new blog, leaving the content of this blog strictly about our family, our journeys through infertility and our passion for adoption.  Stay tuned I promise to let you know when it's ready.

Now your all caught up, I know it's not the most exciting post, but cheer up and look at some cutie pie pictures of our little man on Mother's Day!

He was very proud, he picked mommy a flower all by himself :)

By far the most blessed mama on the planet!

Check out those eyelashes! 

Love him so stinkin much!!!

Blessings!

Monday Menu Planning

Monday

Dinner with Small Group

Tuesday 

Main: Italian Roasted Chicken / Sides: Couscous and Steamed Veggies

Wednesday

Main: Pork Loin Chops / Sides: Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli

Thursday

Main: Honey Lime Grilled Chicken / Sides: Whole Grain Rice and Green Breans

Friday

Date Night! 

Saturday

Youth Leader Dinner

Main: Bar-b-que Chicken / Sides: Hasselbeck Potatoes, Broccoli Salad and Roasted Corn

Sunday

Main: Left Overs

DIY: Corks-Cork Board

Recently it seems our fridge has turned into a paper catcher for grocery lists, business cards, coupons, schedules, etc.  You name it, it's probably on our refrigerator, and the moment you open the door...down goes the papers!  I finally decided it was time to clear this baby up.  

I had pulled out an old cork board but that seemed to plain, so after searching the craft room I found three bags of corks I had purchased at a local craft thrift store.

 They were so cheap and I knew eventually I would find the perfect project for them.

I pulled together supplies from around my house; an old board I had been using in the pantry, a bottle of wood glue from the garage and I a nice sharp knife to cut to corks in half...

 Important Note: Real corks are VERY hard to cut through.  If I had to do it over again I would purchase a cutting tool from a hardware store.  Synthetic corks do cut very easily, however they do not look as nice as real corks.

 Here are the easy instructions:

1. Cut all your corks in half, this is the hardest part...

2.  Decide on the pattern you want to use on your board.  Lay the pattern out to be sure you have enough corks to cover the space and your design will work.

3.  Once you have your design, measure the center and make a tiny mark.  

 4.  Put a small amount of glue on the back of each cork and place it onto your board.  You will need to push down hard and hold for a minute to be sure the cork half's adhere to the board.

5.  When all your corks have been glued down place a flat heavy object, like a book, on top of the corks and let dry for 24 hours.

5.  Drill your board into the wall and viola, instant cork board!

I love love LOVE how the alternating design on my board turned out...

And how does it work....

Beautifully!  The corks hold nice and tight, it has become quite the conversation piece and is a great addition to our growing family command center.  Since I had everything on hand, this "Cork" board was F-R-E-E!!!  I may just need to make another one for my craft room.

Happy Crafting!