The Davis Family News

Catching Up a Bit

2011-12-14T16:24:00.001-06:00

Whew! It has been a busy Christmas season for us this year! Here's a little picture recap of the last few weeks.

We broke tradition this year and set up our tree before Thanksgiving. In the past, we have always done it the day after, but now that we live closer to family, we tend to do a little more traveling that weekend. I love having Christmas decor up, so setting it up early seemed like a better option than waiting until later. This was Ben's first year to help put the ornaments on the tree. Needles to say, all of them were pretty much in one place. :-) He had a great time though.

We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving with Matt's family and got to see not only his parents, grandma and aunt, but also his brother and sister-in-law as well as his sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. This was really the first time the three kiddos actually played together. I don't know if I would go so far as to say they always played well, but it was still fun to see. I think they will keep having more fun together as they get older.

While we were at Matt's family's house, we were blessed to have a baby shower thrown for us by my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. It was a beautiful shower with fun decor and super yummy food. We enjoyed getting to see more of Matt's family and they showered us with some great gifts!

Last year, I had this great idea for starting a Christmas countdown calendar complete with fun activities and treats to count down the 25 days until Christmas. I also wanted to start a Jesse Tree. I think one big idea is enough for one year, so last year, we just did the Jesse Tree. We use a tiny tree that I purchased at Hobby Lobby and little ornaments that I cut from stiff felt. We start the Sunday after Thanksgiving and go all the way up until Christmas. The devotions are simple and it's a great way to see how God had a plan for our salvation from before He even created the world. You can find these free devotions, as well as templates for the ornaments here. This year, we are continuing the tradition of the Jesse Tree, but I added a Christmas countdown calendar in as well. It's kept me pretty busy, but it's been really fun and I'm hoping to keep up the tradition. The above picture is one of the things that was on our calendar. We made these as teacher gifts - dipped marshmallows on sticks, hot chocolate packets, and candy cane kisses. Super fun and super easy. Other things we've done for our calendar are homemade ornaments (total fail of a project, but fun to do), reading books while cuddled under blankets, making cookies, making paper snowflakes, making a paper chain in Christmas colors, and attending a few fun things around town.

One of the events we attended last weekend was called Clabber Girl Country Christmas. My sister works are this awesome bakery and coffee shop downtown and they had all kinds of fun things for kids. Each of them cost a little money, so we let Ben choose two. He went for getting a gingerbread cookie with his name on it and making a paper elf.

And lastly, my belly has most definitely popped in the last few weeks! I cannot believe it, but we are into the third trimester now. I feel like time is going to fly over the next 10 1/2 or so weeks. I'm still feeling pretty good overall. The belly is starting to make me change the way I do a few things, but I've been so blessed so far with a great pregnancy. I had my glucose tolerance test last week and since we are in the middle of Christmas goodie season, I was super nervous that I wouldn't pass and would miss out on lots of yummy stuff. Then when I went into the lab, the lady asked me if I was fasting. My doctor hadn't told me to fast, so not only was I not fasting, but I had been extra hungry that morning and had already eaten twice. She told me she'd probably see me back for the three hour test. I drank that grossly sweet drink and praise the Lord I passed the test! Pretty sure I've gained 5 pounds since then from all the Christmas goodies I've consumed since then. Yikes! :-) We started our childbirth classes last week. I'm not super thrilled about them, but hopefully they will get better and more informative over the next few weeks. I have a friend who loaned me a great book that Matt and I have been reading together that has been super informative (it's also been freaking me out as we get closer to delivery time), so I'm not too worried about the childbirth classes being as basic as they seem to be. I've also been attending a weekly prenatal yoga class and I love it! Last week my balance had definitely changed a bit and I kept falling out of poses, but the strengthening and stretching we do during the class is great as I continue to gain weight and prepare for labor.

Benjamin Funnies

2011-11-18T14:08:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I was in line at the grocery store with Ben and he started talking to the baby. Then he looked up and asked me if the baby could hear him. I told him he could hear his voice, but probably couldn't understand the words he was saying. I told Ben it was kind of like having your head under water in the bathtub and trying to hear someone talking. Ben got a funny look on his face and asked me if there was water in my belly. I told him there was and that it helped to protect the baby. He paused for a minute and then asked "Are there sharks in there too?"

October Travels

2011-11-07T14:47:00.001-06:00

I think after a week of being home, we are finally recovered and caught up on sleep from all of our October travels. We were so blessed to be able to be gone for just over two weeks and enjoyed the refreshment of time away as a family. We got to see some great friends in Kansas and Texas and also got to see some of Ben's birth family. It was a great trip. We were definitely ready to be home in our own beds by the end of two weeks, but even the time in the car was mostly enjoyable. We listened to lots of books on tape, played travel Bingo, colored with Ben in the back seat, and got annoyed with each other a few times. :-) Ben watched a few movies and was in heaven getting to watch way more than he normally does. And while we were gone, my belly finally really popped out! It's so much fun to be big enough now that people who don't know I'm pregnant can tell. I felt pretty good through most of the trip. My back was not appreciative of all the car time and I had a few times of travel food not sitting well with me, but other than that, I think it all went great. Little man is kicking stronger and even making my belly move sometimes. It's amazing!

23 weeks

We stopped in Omaha first for Matt's conference. It was freezing cold, but Ben and I got out and found these awesome slides a few blocks from our hotel. Matt joined us later and that's him at the top of the slide.

We had such a great time with our friends Brian and Katie and their son. Ben and Cale played hard just about every minute we were with them.

Yay for great friends!

Dinner out with Bert, Tina, Eric and Jamie

We spent an afternoon in downtown San Antonio and had to splurge on freshly made guacamole from Boudros. Mmmmm. I sure do miss good avocados!!

Ben did super well with all the hours of driving. We had a fun little surprise for him for each long day and I think it made it a little more fun for him. I picked up some animals at the dollar store and they were a huge hit.

Ben was so excited to get to help daddy wash the windows!

Our last stop before beginning the drive home was El Paso. We had a great time visiting Ben's birth grandma and great grandma.

Emotions of Pregnancy after Infertility

2011-10-14T13:22:00.000-05:00

I've had some pretty emotional weeks lately. A week ago I finished out a journal I started just over three years ago. I'm not very good at consistency with journaling and it was only a 70 page notebook, but when I get to the end of one, I always like to look back through to see where God has taken me. Three years ago we found out about a possible adoption opportunity. The journal started with prayer over that situation. Three years ago today that little boy was born and we thought God meant him to be part of our family. God had other plans and if I had known that it would be three and a half more years before we would add to our family, it would have felt like too much. I'm always amazed at how I want to know what's coming, but when I look back, I'm so glad God showed me only what I needed to know for each season. So my journal ended with the wonder and amazement of finding out I was pregnant. Only God could take something so silly like a journal and start it and end it in such a way.

Pregnancy after years of infertility is so filled with emotion. Some days I feel guilty and almost hesitant to share excitement because I know the pain of so many women who have not yet carried a child in their womb. Other days I feel like it can't be real and I wait for the reality check to let me know that this too is just another pain filled experience along the way. Sometimes fear takes me over and I spend the whole day trying to place myself back at the feet of Jesus in full surrender to whatever His plan is. And some days the joy fills me so full to the top that I cry just thinking about the precious baby boy growing and kicking inside my womb. Overall, I'm in awe. I don't know God's plans for this child. But I'm amazed that He is allowing this child to grow inside of me. Each day is such a blessing and I don't want to take any of them for granted.

Guess Who's Getting a Little Brother!!

2011-10-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

Whew! This pregnancy is flying by! I'm 19 weeks and I think now I almost want it to slow down just a tiny bit. I love this stage! I'm finally starting to show a tiny bit more and in the last few weeks I've felt little flutters and kicks and it's just amazing!! I think I can finally say that I am over having sick days for the most part, unless I do way too much one day. I have so much more energy now and I'm loving being able to work out more consistently and get a few more things done around the house. I am also finally able to eat just about anything now, which is awesome, but now I need to be careful because I went from wanting nothing to do with sugar, to craving chocolate ALL THE TIME!! But I'm also enjoying all kinds of healthy stuff again too. I'm officially not fitting into my jeans anymore and I was so excited to find some maternity jeans that look and feel great, but are also long enough. I've decided that they may have to remain in my closet even after pregnancy because I think they fit better than my non maternity jeans. :-) I'm still so in awe that I am getting to experience this. I feel like I just want to soak up every minute. Last week was a super exciting doctor's appointment. We got to see this little life that is growing inside me. It felt surreal. Of course based on tests and the way I was feeling, I knew I was pregnant, but to have the image of this precious baby come up on the screen was amazing! And, we found out that God is blessing us with another boy! Benjamin was so excited when he found out. He was pretty set on having a boy because he thought he and the baby should match.

OK, so still not showing a ton, but definitely growing!

14 Weeks

2011-09-02T07:43:00.000-05:00

Seems like the first trimester went by super slow, but I have a feeling things are about to speed up now that I'm mostly feeling better. I'm still waiting for the energy boost that all the books mention, but at least I can eat normal food again! I still can't believe this is for real! We had our second doctor's appointment yesterday and I am pretty sure hearing this little one's heartbeat will never get old. Apparently we have a little mover because when the nurse placed the doppler on my stomach, she got the heartbeat right away, but then it was gone and she had to search quite a bit to find it again. In the midst of her searching though, we got to hear a kick. It was amazing! Can't wait for our next appointment when we will get to see this little person on an ultrasound!!!

I never took any belly pictures before now, and I kind of wish I had just for the fun of comparison, but I'm finally starting to get a little bit of a belly, so I thought it was time to start taking belly pictures!

Ben's Take on the Baby in my Belly

2011-08-30T10:12:00.000-05:00

This morning Ben was perusing through a week by week pregnancy book I have from the library. It's complete with illustrations and his analysis was quite entertaining.

When he came to a picture of the cells dividing, he said "mommy, do you have pancakes in your belly?"

When he came to a picture of a tiny tiny baby inside the womb, he said "Oh mommy, look at the little baaaaaby inside of you. (said in baby voice) How tiny is he? He's like a booger!"

After that, Ben asked me how big the baby is in my belly right now. I tried to explain that it's about the size of a large lemon (at least that's what the internet says) :-). He insisted that no, our baby was not a lemon. I then explained that it was about the size of my fist (this is how my pregnancy book describes 14 weeks). He then grew adamant and said "No mommy, the baby is not a lemon and it's not a fish! It's just a baby!) So there you have it!

Looks

2011-08-19T14:01:00.000-05:00

A strange thing hit me this week. This child is going to look like me and Matt. Would this be a strange thought to most people? Probably not. But seven years ago when doctors told us our chance of getting pregnant was less than 1%, whether or not our child looked like us was the farthest thing from my mind. I just wanted to be a mom. As we grieved through infertility and God moved our hearts toward adoption, the thought that our child would not look like us did cross my mind, but it just didn't really matter. I wanted a baby to hold and love and I wanted to see Matt be a daddy. And then God blessed us like crazy by bringing Ben into our lives and people began to comment about how he must take after Matt, or me. I would laugh because I knew his adorable looks came straight from his birth families. And I love that. In fact, sometimes it rubs me the wrong way when people know we adopted Ben and they still insist that he looks like us, as if looking like your parents truly is the only way you know you belong.

And so, the idea of our child looking like us almost surprised me when it came to mind this week. I'm so excited about it! But I'm also so glad for the perspective adoption has given me. Families are put together by God. Sometimes they all look like each other, and sometimes He likes to change things up. I can't believe I'm getting to experience both! And in the end, I hope we all look most like Him!

For Nothing is Impossible with God!!

2011-08-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

I love a good secret, but I hate keeping secrets when it means keeping good news to myself. And this is the reason that it's been over a month since I updated our blog. This secret has consumed my mind and well, my body and I felt like I had nothing else to talk about. But now it's out!!! God has worked a miracle and let us see in a very tangible way that He is the God of the impossible. I am pregnant!!! Totally unexpected, totally out of the blue, but totally in His timing.

Our church had VBS at the end of June and I was in charge of a Bible times bakery. Ben turned four at the end of June and I was attempting to plan his little family party. And the timing just so happened to work out that all that fell during my dreaded monthly misery. VBS was in the evening at our church this year and I was TIRED!!! Tiredness around this time is not that unusual for me, so I didn't think anything about it, until my regular monthly friend wasn't quite as regular as normal. After seven years though, I didn't get my hopes up. I was just frustrated because I didn't want to feel yucky for Ben's party. So I woke up early on Thursday June 23rd and my mind just wouldn't let it go. I felt kind of silly because, after all, this had happened MANY times before and been nothing. But I knew we had a pregnancy test in the closet that we had purchased many many months before and I thought I would take it and at least that way, I could put the thought out of my mind and move on with getting ready for VBS that night and preparing for Ben's party. Matt works out at a gym and leaves really early on Thursday mornings, so I waited for him to leave before taking the test. I honestly just felt silly for even deciding to take it. I figured I would tell him later that I had taken it and that it was negative, but we've done this so many times, that when one of us has a hopeful month, we rarely say anything to the other because it's just not worth the emotional drama.

So at 6:07am or so, I took the test and within seconds there were two pink lines. I was stunned! Honestly I had no idea what to do. I walked out of the bathroom and then walked back in 20 times just to look at it again because I just didn't believe it. And Matt wasn't even home. I knew there was no way he would hear his phone while he was working out, so I waited a little while before calling him. You can imagine that I spent those few minutes just praising God and asking Him if this could possibly be for real. The passage in Luke came to mind where Mary has just been told that she is going to have a son and then when the angel tells her that her cousin Elizabeth is also with child he says "For nothing is impossible with God." I felt so amazed in that moment to be offered such a tangible way to knowing that to be true.

I finally got a hold of Matt and told him that I had taken the test and that it was positive. He was completely speechless. Then he told me he was coming home and we spent the next several minutes before he had to go to work asking each other if this could possibly be for real. I still didn't completely believe the test, so after he left for work, I called my doctor and asked if I could come in for a blood test. Then I went and bought a second test, which was also positive. Waiting for the call back from the doctor with the results of my blood work seemed to take forever! But when they finally called, I let myself believe that this was actually happening. What an amazing day!

So I feel like I've spent the summer sleeping and trying to figure out what to eat that doesn't sound completely disgusting. I have been blessed not to be super sick, but I definitely haven't felt great. I've struggled with worry and fear that this pregnancy won't last and that this will just be another disappointment, but even that God is using to teach and refine me as he shows me more of His character and calls me to trust Him with the unknowns and what-ifs. I'm learning to leave tomorrow for tomorrow and praise God for each day I get with this precious little life inside me.

I am 10 weeks this week and yesterday I had my first appointment. I knew it was early, but I was so hopeful to get to hear the heartbeat and we got to! What an amazing blessing! Now I'm addicted and can't wait until my next appointment so I can hear it again. :-)

So, Lord willing, we will be welcoming this little miracle into our lives on or around February 28th. I'm SOOO excited!!!

Little Super Heroes

2011-06-28T14:56:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago my little brother came over for the afternoon to play with Ben. I had this idea I found for making super hero capes and decided to give it a try for both boys. It was a total success! Both boys were running around the house pretending the fly and chase villains for the rest of the afternoon.

I found the idea for these here.

Benjamin Funnies

2011-06-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

Benjamin was just eating his breakfast and showed me his tongue covered with toast crumbs. I made an "eeewww" sound and told him to put his tongue back in his mouth. He swallowed and said the toast was in his tummy, so I told him maybe he should drink some water to flush it down. He filled his mouth with water, ran to the bathroom, spit it in the toilet, flushed, and said "I did it mommy! I flushed it down." I love the literal thinking of an almost four year old.

Where Has the Time Gone?

2011-06-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

I think my brain still thinks it's April and so when I stop and realize we are almost a third of the way through June, I'm a little bit in shock. It's amazing how being busy can make the time pass so much more quickly. So what have we been up to? Well, attending my sister's high school graduation, traveling to Matt's sister's wedding, getting away for an anniversary weekend combined with attending a homeschool conference, and now I'm preparing for next year's MOPS. Oh yes, and while this doesn't take up any of our time, we are active with our adoption agency and I'm truly having to practice patience as we wait to get "the call." Some days I don't actually think about it much, but other days I feel this constant need to keep the phone by my side just in case. It's so exciting, but waiting can be so hard.

Matt and I celebrated 9 years of marriage this past week. My parents were amazing and kept Ben from Thursday night through Sunday morning (they were going out of town and brought Ben to us on their way). It was the first time we'd been away from Ben for that long and we were very ready to see him by Sunday. But it was super refreshing to get away. We stayed in downtown Indianapolis in a hotel we got for a steal on Hotwire. We walked to almost everything and never ate dinner before 8pm. Not sure why that was so much fun, but it just felt so carefree and unconstrained by bedtime schedules. I'm married to such a great man and it was amazing to have that time to talk uninterrupted, take lots of walks, eat out at some of our favorite restaurants, and just kind of feel like we were newlyweds again.

In addition to celebrating our anniversary, we also attended a few sessions at the homeschool convention. Honestly most of them were not all that helpful to us in making a decision as to whether or not to homeschool. Some of them were even enough to make me say "no way!" But we went to one that inspired us and after spending a couple hours looking through curriculum and asking tons of questions, I think we are going to give it a try for kindergarten. I'm pretty excited about the curriculum we will be using.

So this week has been the start to preparing to be in leadership for MOPS next year. I'm really excited to be a part of his great ministry. There is just something so freeing about being able to share mommy stories with other women who are going through the same thing and I feel like I've gotten so many great parenting ideas from some of the speakers I've heard over the past few years. I think MOPS was one of the things I missed the most when we moved away from San Antonio. I always felt so inspired by the group of women in my group. So now it's my turn to be in leadership here and sometimes I think maybe I'm in over my head, but I'm excited to see what God does with our group next year.

Here are a few pictures of our time at Matt's sister's wedding.

Ben enjoyed hanging out with his cousins.

Ben and the other kids were tearing up the dance floor!

I know I'm biased, but I don't care. He is just the cutest little ring bearer ever!!

Approved!!

2011-05-13T12:04:00.002-05:00

This week was an exciting one because we got our homestudy report and sent in our last form and fee before we activate. Woohoo! We should be active by sometime next week and then the waiting begins. I've had all kinds of emotions throughout this process. Some days I feel like I can't even handle what God has given me and I think there's no way we should be adopting again. Other days I am anxious that we will never get chosen again. But lately, I've had peace. I don't know what God's plan is for us this time. I don't know if our first match will go through, or if we will have a fall through. I don't know how long the wait will be or even if we will have a match. But God does and I'm choosing to surrender to His will, whatever that may look like. But that's not to say that I'm not excited!! The thought of having another baby to love and of watching Ben be a big brother thrills me! I feel peaceful about the wait, but I'm so excited to see what this next adoption story looks like.

Rest Time

2011-05-12T13:25:00.000-05:00

It's been several months now since Ben gave up his nap time. It was often a fight and then when he did actually sleep, bedtime was another fight. So now we do a rest time in the afternoons. Sometimes this is a fight too, but it allows him some time to do quiet things and it give me a little down time each day. The past month though it's been getting light earlier and earlier and he's been waking up in the mornings earlier too. This leads to a lot of tired days. The other day I decided to sneak a short snooze in while Ben was resting. He was being quite loud when I was dozing off, but when I woke up twenty minutes later, the house was quiet. I panicked, thinking he was getting into trouble. Then I went into his room and this is what I saw...

I guess he was so tired that pulling up his pants was just too much!

Since my Last Post...

2011-04-25T13:48:00.000-05:00

We had our homestudy interview
We attended our homestudy class
I cleaned like a crazy woman
We had the home visit portion of our homestudy
Ben and I (mostly I) built a cardboard city for Kindermusik
Matt successfully pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party for me
And last but not least, we spent Easter weekend with lots of family

Whew! It was a busy couple of weeks!

Hopefully within a month or so our homestudy report and our bio will be complete and we will officially be active with our agency. We are SO excited to bring another baby into our family! I think I'm still in a little bit of shock over how quickly everything went after we registered with our agency. I can so easily get into this mode of moving quickly and forget that we may very well have to wait a while before we are chosen by a birth family, but I know that God already knows the child He has for us, so I don't want to be impatient.

This week is Ben's last week of Kindermusik. It's been fun watching him interact with other kids in more of a class-like setting and listening to all the songs he's learned. I don't know that we will continue next year, but it was a good experience for him. The theme this year was cities and the end of the year project was building a city out of whatever materials you wanted. We used a lot of cardboard and Ben loved it. It was a little crazy trying to build it in the midst of adoption paperwork and home study preparation, but it got done and he was pretty proud of it.

And here's the part where I shamelessly brag about my amazing husband. He apparently started planning for my 30th birthday party months ago. He worked out every detail, snuck into my e-mail to get addresses for friends he'd never even met, enlisted help getting everything set up, figured out how to get me there without making me the least bit suspicious, and managed to keep it a surprise the whole time. I thought we were going to an combined egg hunt for several of the small groups in our church. I even at the last minute went and got Ben a cute little basket to collect his eggs in. When we walked into the church I thought it was awfully quiet for an egg hunt with lots of little kids involved. Then we walked up the stairs and I heard someone whisper "surprise." right before everyone shouted it. Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed and felt so blessed to have so many people come to help me celebrate. I'm still a little bit in shock that I'm turning 30 tomorrow. I always thought I would feel grown up and capable of handling life by this age, but I don't. But when I look back over the last ten years of my 20's, I can see how amazing God is as He has pursued me and loved me and convicted me and humbled me and been patient with me and comforted me and blessed me and most of all shown me that He's not finished refining me and that His refining draws me closer to Himself. (sorry for the run-on) There have been some tough things to walk through in my twenties. Sometimes that makes me nervous about my thirties. But it shouldn't, because the tough things have been the things that have made me see that God is the only important One. So I hope that when I get to the end of this next decade, I can look back and see that God was more often my first priority that He was in my twenties.

Walking into the party

I am one very blessed woman!!

This year was such a great Easter. Ben is asking so many questions and understanding and remembering and I had so many opportunities to talk with him about the reason we celebrate. He walks around the house now saying "Jesus is alive!" I love it!

We never did get a family picture on Easter morning, and Ben is a little washed out by the flash in this one, but he was decked out this year and so grown up looking.

Conversations with Ben

2011-04-12T13:26:00.000-05:00

Conversation while eating lunch with Ben today:

Ben: Mommy, I'm gonna be Goliath, Daddy is David, and you be a pig
Me: OK, but what does the pig do?
Ben: It goes oink and eats a lot
Me: Are you sure you want to be Goliath?
Ben: Yes, I LOVE Goliath
Me: But Goliath was a bad man who didn't follow God and David killed him
Ben: No, mommy, you be the pig, I'll be David, and daddy can be Goliath
Me: no way! I don't want daddy to get killed
Ben: Then you be Goliath and I'll be David, and then I get to kill you.
Me: Can I just be the pig and you be David?
Ben: um, sure
Me: (in my head) did I really just request to be the pig?

Captured Moments

2011-04-04T07:16:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have times when you wish you could stay in a moment forever? I had one of those yesterday. We had a family movie night last night complete with snacks and cuddles. But that was not the moment. The moment came after the movie was over and I went out on our porch to watch the last of the sunset and feel the rare warmth of the air outside. I looked back inside and caught Matt and Ben dancing crazily to the credits of the movie. The moment continued when we all put our flip flops on and ran outside to see the beautiful sunset. And my favorite part of the night was Ben taking off running as fast as he could and Matt and I running with him and all of us laughing together because we were just enjoying each other. And in my mind at the time, I wanted it to last forever. Of course it couldn't and we had to come in and put Ben to bed, but that moment was such a reminder to me not to take life for granted and to recognize the blessings God gives.

Matt and Ben dancing to the credits

Quick Update

2011-04-01T07:56:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe I let March go by with only one blog post. And this one is going to be short because it's still crazy! Right now we are in the middle of adoption paperwork in preparation for our home study. We attended an orientation meeting with an agency here and last week we called to register with them. Since then it's been a whirlwind of getting fingerprints, criminal record checks, copies made, and a ton of other things. But we are SO excited!! We will attend our office interview next week and our home study class the week after and then we will have our actual home visit. We are scrambling to get our extra bedroom cleaned out and ready to be a baby room. I'm going through Magic Erasers like you wouldn't believe in attempt to get all of Ben's fingerprints and crayon marks off the wall. It's amazing how many things you don't notice until you know someone is going to come to your home to look at your home. I know from past experience that this isn't a white glove check, but still, I want things clean.

Besides getting ready for our home study, Ben and I have also had a few little projects to work on. He is doing Kindermusik this spring and the theme is cities. One week they were talking about sculptures and art and they had to create a sculpture. I gave Ben a couple of pieces of aluminum foil and told him to make something. He crumpled it up and said he was done. Then he looked at it and said it looked like an elephant. I decided we would go with it and gave him more foil to make a body. Then he changed his mind and said it looked like a squirrel. We added a bushy tail and some eyes and he had a pretty cool squirrel sculpture that other than hot gluing, he did pretty much by himself. I was one proud momma!

Our next project was a car. Ben is in Awana at a local church here and each year they have a grand prix car race. I had no idea what we were going to do with this as I do not feel artistically inclined and besides painting the base color, it was kind of hard for Ben to do. It didn't help that I was sick for three weeks in late February and early March and didn't even have time to start painting it until a week before it was due to be raced. But despite that, Ben won first place for design and came in fourth (out of five total) for speed. Mostly though, he just had a great time sitting along side the track eating fun snacks and watching the cars race down the track.

The big excitement for last month was getting to go visit my sister and her family after the birth of my new nephew. He is so precious and it was fun to get to see him while he was only two weeks old. Ben was a little to excited for Stephen and kind of scared him out of wanting to play, but we still managed to get a cute little cousin picture. I cannot wait to go back up and see those sweet boys again.

We took a wonderful vacation in March as well. We stayed two nights in a lodge about two hours away and enjoyed hiking and the indoor water park. We spent the remainder of the week doing fun things around home. We took Ben rollerskating for the first time, went out to eat a few times, went to the children's museum, and watched some movies. I think having a vacation mostly at home, while not as exciting as a travel vacation, is the most relaxing type of vacation. It was much needed and we were so refreshed by the end of it.

I think that about sums up our month. Now back to the adoption craziness for me!

Benjamin Funnies

2011-03-04T10:10:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted any of these in a while. I really need to carry a notebook around with me to record all the funny things Ben says. But here are a few I remember from recently.

Matt's parents were here for a visit and Benjamin was talking nonstop as usual. We were trying to clarify something he said and mentioned "everybody." He said "No, not everybody, just a couple buddies."

Matt was reading to Ben from a children's Bible verse book and read Proverbs 20:11 to him. It reads "Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right." Matt started talking to Ben about how our actions show what is in our heart. Then he asked Ben what was in his heart. Ben thought for a minute and then said "Blood."

This morning I was sitting on the floor reading my Bible and Ben brought his children's Bible in to read. He turned to a picture of Jesus being baptized and said "mommy look, he got advertised."

I love love love the mind of my little three year old!

Valentine Rambles

2011-02-15T14:41:00.000-06:00

Happy late Valentine's Day! I am a girl who likes any excuse for celebration, so Valentine's day is one of my favorite days. After having at least one of us sick for nearly two weeks, the fact that we were all well for this weekend made it even better. We had a great weekend (yes we like to extend our celebrations) that included a date for me and Matt, a date for me and Ben, and lots of good family time. Matt actually started this year off two weeks early by hiding valentine's notes or treats for me somewhere around the house each day. I felt pretty spoiled and very blessed. I'm not sure when the last time was that we were out at a restaurant on Valentine's weekend, and it was definitely crowded, but it was fun. Yesterday I took Ben out for a lunch date and then we went to the pet store. I have pretty severe allergies to anything with fur, so we will never own a cat or dog, but it was fun to look around. We could have come home with a baby hedgehog for a mere $190. Not sure what you do with a pet hedgehog, but I will say that it was kind of cute.

Getting cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory has been pretty traditional for us the past few years, but now that we live in a little city, that was not an option. Unless of course I wanted to pay $45 in shipping, plus $28 for the 7" cheesecake. So, we opted for our other favorite dessert. Or at least, it used to be. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge ice cream girl. I think I would say it is, or at least was, my very favorite dessert. But for some reason, my body has decided it doesn't appreciate milk or cream, or yogurt, and only tolerates small amounts of other dairy. This has been the case for several months now and I think it's almost been a bit of an adventure for me as I have been figuring out what I can and can't have. But for some reason this weekend the adventure aspect of it was no more and I kind of had a silent kicking screaming fit inside myself as I stood in the dairy free ice cream aisle. Matt had requested chocolate ice cream and that sounded SO good to me. But my choices were very limited in the dairy free aisle and chocolate was not there. I went home with Matt's chocolate ice cream and my vanilla rice non dairy dessert and about half way home I was convicted of how bratty I was being. As if the world was coming to an end because I could never have real ice cream again. It's amazing how much I can blow things out of proportion when I get into the mode of having to have exactly what I want. As it turned out, we all enjoyed our valentine's day (r)ice cream and I discovered that homemade chocolate chip cookies make even non dairy options taste amazing.

In other news, (not that what we had for our Valentine's dessert was really news) one month from tomorrow we will be attending an adoption information session for an agency in our state. We did attend one training session for foster care, but after lots of prayer, we think that the timing may be a bit off for now. It's hard because there truly is such a need for good foster homes, but we feel like we need to be a bit more connected here before taking on something that could potentially be very emotionally difficult. This is still something we think God is calling us to and we are praying about the possibility of going through the training again in three or four years. In the mean time, we plan to pursue an infant adoption through an agency we've heard good things about. I'm nervous about starting over again, especially since the doors have so clearly been shut these last couple years, but we are laying it before the Lord and asking for His will. I'm hopeful that His will is another child in our family, but my hearts desire is that I not be in a place of desiring a child more than desiring God's perfect plan for our family.

Iced In

2011-02-04T13:50:00.000-06:00

I find it quite humorous that we lived in Texas for almost seven years and then the first winter we are back home, we have the worst winter in years. Although from what I've heard, Texas is getting a pretty bad one this year too.

The freezing rain started Monday night and later turned to ice, continuing through Tuesday night. We never did get much more than a dusting of snow though and our building only lost power for a little more than an hour. Compared to much of the city, we were blessed. It's officially been four days since I've ventured beyond our parking lot. I'm such a wimp when it comes to driving in winter snow, so driving on potentially icy roads terrifies me.

Matt had two days off, which was also a huge blessing since my body decided it was time to get sick and I was worthless for two days. But yesterday was a fun day of hanging out inside doing crafts, baking, reading, playing, dancing to music, and enjoying the pretty sunshine from the indoors. We did make it outside for a little while, but everything was so slick that Ben kept falling and I came close several times.

I did finally remember to take a few pictures!

Puzzles are best when done in your bathrobe

Benjamin and I made cinnamon raisin bread. mmmmm!

Time for some honey butter

Now for the cinnamon and raisins

He was so proud of his bread

This picture doesn't capture it well, but the trees looked like crystals yesterday!

Ben couldn't stay on his feet and ended up having to crawl back to the door

The bushes behind our building

The side yard beside our building is a solid sheet of ice

Weekend Blessing

2011-01-31T14:39:00.000-06:00

I think my camera has taken a vacation. Perhaps it has decided that if it can't photograph sunny warm things, it might as well not photograph at all. Or, it could just be that I never remember to actually use it.

Today is an exciting day! We have officially made it through what in my opinion is the worst month of the year if you live in winter weather land. Once we hit February, it feels like we are on the downhill slide toward Spring. Woohoo! But it doesn't look like January is going out without leaving her mark. We are expecting a major ice and then snow storm in the next few days that will probably mean not leaving the house again until Thursday. You can bet Benjamin and I will be doing some major reading, crafting, baking, and playing. Maybe I'll even take some pictures. :-)

This past weekend was a fun one for Ben (and for me). He got to attend his very first friend birthday party. MOPS is not a big thing around here, but there is a very small group that meets once a month and I decided to join it. I've only gone to one meeting, but it's been such a blessing and Ben has really hit it off with a couple of the boys. One of the boys had his birthday party and Ben got invited. After almost a year of feeling pretty unconnected, it was amazing to be there watching Ben really interact with some other boys and to get to have some comfortable conversations with other moms at the same time. This past year has been such a season of loneliness and this weekend felt so normal and fun. God is good whether I'm lonely or not, but I'm thankful for His blessings of new friends.

This and That

2011-01-20T14:56:00.000-06:00

It's snowing again today. I think I get spring fever every time it gets above 35 and the snow melts. But then I get my reality check two days later when we get another 5 inches of snow. I'm getting a bit of cabin fever from being cooped up so much. I keep seeing facebook status updates of people doing outdoor things and I'm super jealous. But, I will say that despite the cold and the yucky driving conditions, it is really pretty. I'm so incredibly grateful for the beautiful view we have out our apartment windows. Snow can get so ugly after a few days of being driven in, but not having a view of the street at least keeps it pristine white for our view. I have to keep it positive so I don't go crazy. Hahaha!

Ben started Kindermusik today. He's been super excited about it for weeks. All morning he kept asking me when it would be time to go. Then it finally was time and we got there and he went in and didn't participate in anything. I figured he was just observing but would be excited to tell me about it afterword. Sometimes when something is totally new, he does tend to stay back and observe. But when it was time to leave, he told me he wasn't coming back ever. He told his teacher that he wouldn't see her again because he was never coming back. I asked him why, but he didn't have any reason, so I guess maybe the winter doldrums are getting to him too.

I'm so determined to be a more consistent blogger this year, but some weeks just don't seem to have much in the way of blog worthy activities. So, since I'm cooped up inside due to snow and I'm completely in the mood to bake, I'll leave you with a few pictures of Ben's cupcakes from his adoption party last week. And then I'm going to go work out before I figure out something fun to bake today. I'm thinking homemade soft pretzels might be in order.

Happy Adoption Day!

2011-01-14T11:38:00.000-06:00

For some reason this week has been a week of stepping back and really looking at Benjamin. I mean, I see him every day, but sometimes I just go through life with him and don't think about how big he's getting. But a couple of days ago we were sitting on the couch reading a stack of books and he and Matt were carrying on this very adult-like conversation about one of them and it just hit me that he is not at all a baby anymore. He's just so grown up. He's getting so independent and wants to do everything himself. He even made his own PB&J this week. I was blown away.

So today we are celebrating his third adoption day. Ben and I spent an hour this morning looking through pictures from our first time of meeting Olana, his birth, his first few months after birth, and pictures of his finalization. He's starting to ask more questions about adoption now. He's still very much at the age where he just takes it in stride like it's no big deal. I love the little ways he's grasping it all and I love getting to share the way that God brought him into our family. Today as we were looking through pictures of his placement ceremony, he was asking me if we were sad. I still cannot look through those pictures without getting emotional. So I tried to explain to him how much Olana loved him and how she chose us to be his parents, but that it broke her heart not to be able to be his mommy. Just explaining it all to him makes me so amazed at the strength it took for Olana to make and follow through with her decision. I am so blessed to be able to be Ben's mommy.

Christmas Recap

2011-01-07T13:27:00.001-06:00

Well I'm a week late, but Happy New Year!!!

We enjoyed some great family time and times of rest over Christmas this year. This was the first year since Ben's first Christmas that we got to be with family and it was so much fun! This was also Matt's and my first year to stay up late putting together a Christmas present for Ben. I think we were a little crazy given that we are in an apartment with limited space, but we got him a train table and so far, it's been a hit. And while it was not Ben's first snow, it was his very first white Christmas and it was beautiful.

Christmas morning started off in our bed with the Christmas story. Then we ate a quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls and egg bake before heading to the living room for gifts. This may be the last year we can hold Ben off that long. As a kid I always remember hating it when we had to eat breakfast before we opened gifts. Haha! After having fun opening gifts from each other, we cleaned up a bit and headed to my parents' for Christmas #2. It was so fun to be close enough to spend Christmas morning at home as a family and then the afternoon with my family.

The day after Christmas, Matt and I headed to Indy with my sister and her husband to see Wicked. Matt and I had the opportunity to see it in San Antonio and we loved it so much we wanted Craig and Rachel to see it too. Grandma was kind enough to watch the boys so we could all go. Although it made for a crazy day after Christmas, it was lots of fun!

Monday we headed up to see Matt's parents and had a great time at their house. It's been quite a while since both his siblings were there at the same time we were, so it was fun to visit and to get to see our crazy cute little nieces. We had gift opening #3 at their house and can I just say that I had to go out and purchase totes to store all the new toys Ben got? But I'm grateful for all of them. He's had such a great time playing with all of them.

We came back home Thursday afternoon and got to have a few days to relax as a family and also catch up on some things before heading back into normal routine. I'm pretty sure I am spoiled forever by Matt having so much holiday time off.

Benjamin Funnies

2010-12-24T10:58:00.000-06:00

Matt and I have had this tradition the past couple of years of wrapping each other's gifts at the same time in our bedroom. One of us wraps on one side of the bed and the other on the other side. It's so fun and we talk and tease about what we got. This year, we wrapped the major presents separately, but decided to let Ben in on the wrapping of the stocking stuffers. Here is how it went:

Conversation #1
Ben: "Mommy there's candy in your stocking.
Matt: "Ben, it's a secret, we can't tell mommy what's in there."
Ben: (after waiting until daddy left the room for a minute and in a whisper) "mommy, there's candy" Then running to Matt's side of the bed and grabbing whatever it was he holds it up and says "wanna see mommy, it's candy!" I was a good little girl and looked the other way. ;-)

Conversation #2
Ben: "Mommy is that chocolate?"
Me: "Shhhhhh, it's a secret."
Ben: "is it chocolate??? It IS chocolate!"
Me: "Shhhh, you can't talk about it yet, it's a secret until tomorrow"
Ben: "Is daddy going to share?"
Me: "You'll have to wait and see"
Ben: "Daddy, are you going to share your chocolate?"

So much fun!

Christmas is Almost Here!

2010-12-21T14:34:00.000-06:00

It's four days until Christmas and my mind is already going into break mode. Matt gets 11 days off including the weekends! Makes me feel like I'm in school again and going on Christmas bread. Needless to say, I should be cleaning and cooking and folding laundry to get prepared for our time as a family and then our travels to be with extended family. Not to mention wrapping presents! But I'm blogging instead. Hehe!

I'm done with my Christmas baking for the year, other than a bit of peppermint bark I've got in the works, but I just had to share these pictures of Benjamin helping out with and then enjoying some goodies last week. He was a great helper, even if I did have to separate all the sugar cookies he decorated from the rest. There was just an awful lot of finger licking going on! But that's what makes it so much fun.

Stacking up the chocolate to get it ready for the fudge

Sampling the sugar cookies. Yum!

Matt's work Christmas party has a Santa every year and the little kids get gifts. Ben wouldn't sit on his lap, but was happy to stand next to him. :-)

After dinner at the Christmas party, all the kids went up on risers and sang Jingle Bells using their parents' car keys. It was pretty cute!

Merry Christmas!!

Benjamin Funnies

2010-12-19T19:57:00.001-06:00

This morning Benjamin came to our door at 5am and asked us if we were going to get up. We of course told him no and that it was not morning and he needed to go back to bed. He does this quite often, although not usually quite that early, and many times does not go back to sleep, so I was a little nervous. He was up again at 6:30 to use the bathroom and again, I was shocked that he went back to bed. Finally at 8:30 (yes that's what I said) Matt and I both woke up for good and lay in bed wondering if it could possibly be true that Ben was still asleep. He set quite the record when he finally woke up at 9am. Yay for us! :)

But the best part was that the first words out of his mouth were "I closed my eyes and it worked! I went to sleep." Awesome!!

Winter has Arrived!

2010-12-07T07:59:00.000-06:00

Denial can be such a great place to be, but it always has to end. I've been in severe denial about Indiana weather. One of the reasons we picked San Antonio as a place to live way back when was because it averages 300 days of sunshine a year and we wouldn't have to drive in winter conditions. So when we moved back to Indiana at the end of March and the weather turned warm two days later, I could almost pretend it was just normal. And when we experienced way more sunshine than normal and higher than normal temperatures all the way into November, it felt like maybe this could be normal. And then winter hit. Hard! We got several inches of snow over the weekend and today's high temperature is a bitter 19 degrees. Denial is over! But I have to admit that the snow is beautiful. Benjamin came to our bedroom door Saturday morning and announced "snowtime is here!" So we bundled up and went out to enjoy the wonder of his first big snow.

Time for a snow angel

Snowball fights!

A Fall Review

2010-11-24T14:52:00.000-06:00

I was looking back through pictures and realized that I haven't posted all that many on here recently. So now you get to be bombarded with them. Here is a review of what all we've been up to this fall:

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a bridal shower for my college roommate. I'm super excited for her and it was great to see some friends from college that I haven't seen in a super long time.

In my effort to be more creative in my play with Benjamin, we found a fun recipe for super slime and Benjamin loved it! Purple seems to be a favorite color of his these days, so he wanted purple slime. His favorite part of this was making gloves out of the slime and clapping with them.

What is life without fun costumes? A few years ago we attended a costume party as George and Martha Washington. Since that was in our pre-child phase, I had more time to run around to different Goodwills picking things up. We didn't have nearly as much time this year, so I used super cheap cloth, iron on seam tape, and some hot glue to assemble our Fred and Wilma Flintstone costumes. And I totally enjoyed being a redhead for the night!

One of my favorite things about fall is going to a farm or pumpkin patch. This year we went with the mom's group I am a member of. You never know what the weather is going to be like in October, but this year was perfect! We took two of my sisters and had a blast! Benjamin loved the giant air-filled jumping pillow and the huge corn filled sand box. We also all enjoyed winding our way through the corn maze.

Getting covered with corn - this stuff was coming out of his clothes all the way home and even turned up in the washer and dryer. :)

Loving the Jumping Pillow!

This was Benjamin's first time to be brave enough to feed an animal. We've attempted many petting zoo type things in the past and he has been terrified. This time he was in love with the tiny pony and kept feeding it all evening.

Taking a ride on the corn train.

More Jumping Pillow action.

My sisters Abby and Bekah mid-jump.

In mid-October we took our first family vacation since Benjamin was born. It was wonderful! We rented a condo in Gatlinburg, TN and enjoyed the beauty of the mountains as well as some gorgeous hiking. Again, we were blessed by amazing weather.

Taking a ride on the luggage cart!

On our way to Gatlinburg, we stopped to vist my grandpa and his wife Vivar. Less than two weeks later, the Lord took her home, so we felt blessed to have gotten to see her one last time.

Scenic hiking in Smokey Mountain National Park

We only did one major hike while we were on vacation, but it was an eight mile one. Four miles up and four back down. Benjamin was a trooper and hiked about seven of those miles.

We took a tram from Gatlinburg up to a lookout area and enjoyed some beautiful views.

This was the view from our condo. It was breathtaking. I could get used to waking up to this kind of view.

I was blessed this fall to get to see a friend I haven't seen in years. Both of these girls were some of my best friends from high school.

I've been on an organizing and decluttering kick lately and one day I looked at our bakers rack and just couldn't stand it. Everything in my house is pretty much dark wood, or dark metal, but this was off-white. So I was looking at it and it suddenly dawned on me that I could spray paint it. It is now a beautiful oiled rubbed bronze and I love it! Yay for only spending $10 to get a fresh new look.

And lastly, we have discovered that underwear makes a great mask. Haha!

Fear

2010-11-19T13:27:00.000-06:00

The past couple of weeks have been rough ones. I've had so much fear about so many things. The biggest thing being foster care. I've battled insecurities in my parenting like never before and it's made me question this calling to foster care. The truth of the matter is, I just don't feel equipped. I want to run in the opposite direction. How can I have enough love for these kids when some days I struggle to extend unconditional love to the precious child I already have? How can I be a good mom to a child whose needs are so great when I can hardly figure out this parenting thing with the child I have? I know a lot of my fear is based on lies from the enemy, but I also think it's a challenge from the Lord to be at his feet all day every day. Not just for 20 or 30 minutes in the morning, but continually through the day. I'm not equipped. I can't do this. I have no idea how He's going to do it, but if He's calling me to do it, I have to be at his feet so that He can equip me.

Today I came across this post and it so encouraged me that I had to share it.

Fall Fun

2010-11-04T16:23:00.001-05:00

It's been so much fun to be here for all the fall color again. I have to say, that was one of the things I missed most when we lived in Texas. Now that the leaves have fallen and we are predicted to have nights in the 20's this weekend, I'm ready to head back south, but we sure enjoyed the beauty while it lasted.

Leaf Fight!!!

Stepping Over the Edge

2010-11-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, the Lord brought a sweet little boy into the world and we thought He was bringing him into our family. But He did not. We were devastated and I found myself questioning the very sovereignty of God. Less than a year later, we began the process to adopt again through the same agency we worked with for Benjamin's adoption. We hurriedly finished all our paperwork, asked our friends to write letters of reference, and went to the required orientation. I found myself believing that after what we had been through, we deserved a quick and easy placement. My prayers were often little more that telling God what would make me believe in His sovereignty again. I read my Bible regularly, went to my Bible studies, and did all the things I knew I should be doing. All the while, I was hurting and sometimes really angry that God would take us through the deep pain of infertility, and then, as if that weren't enough, take us through the pain of losing a child we thought He was giving us. We were nearly ready to schedule our home study when Matt's job started getting scary. He came home many days telling me that he didn't know if he'd have a job by the end of the month. My first thoughts were panic over the fact that we couldn't very well adopt a child with no family income. I struggled for control and grew even more frustrated with our circumstances. I had always pictured having my kids about 2 years apart and the closer we got to Ben being 2 1/2, the more anxious I got. But God was (as He always is) working on my heart, even though it was hurting. Not long after we returned from CA after that failed adoption, I came across a podcast done by a couple who had a heart for kids in need and who were in the beginning stages of foster care. I listened to every episode and began to wonder if God would someday lead us down that path. But I really wasn't willing to do it until we had gotten to adopt as least one more baby. Then I started reading the book as part of our women's Bible study at church. It's called The Forgotten God by Francis Chan and it began to change me. Part of the chapter on God's will said "...dwelling on God's plan for the future often excuses us from faithful and sacrificial living now. It tends to create a safe zone of sorts, where we can sit around and have 'spiritual' conversation about what God 'might' have planned for our lives. Thinking, questioning, and talking can take the place of letting the Spirit affect our immediate actions in radical ways." I mulled that over and wanted to act on it, but in many ways I still wasn't "over" my desire to have my way. I wanted to be more willing to go the direction God wanted us to take, but I really didn't want to do it until I had what I wanted, which was a baby.

Not long before we moved, I was part of a Bible study and was watching the video for that week's study. One of the bullet points was that we needed to move past our devastation with God. I felt like someone had just put a knife in me. I knew that was a huge part of my problem. I was devastated with God and I didn't want to get past it. I was afraid if I let go of it and trusted Him again, I would only be devastated again and then perhaps lose my faith all together. But watching that video became a turning point for me. As I completed the study later that week, I was so amazed that God was dealing this out with me and that He hadn't been faithless even though I had. I underlined so much from that week, but a couple of things stuck out to me and they are so true. "Satan has no greater agenda than to talk you and me into believing that God is not good after all." and "Accepting the challenge to work through crisis and conflict can be a tremendously important part of developing closeness in relationship...Work right through the middle of it with your God. He has never left you. Never ceased loving you. And never shut off His goodness from you."

I began to take hold of that truth and in many ways, I feel like that's when I began to believe once again that God is who He says He is. But when we moved, I still assumed that we would adopt an infant before we did anything else. I researched agencies and Matt found out about a couple of people from his work who had adopted recently. We even filled out the preliminary application for an agency and I was ready to send it in. But then I got that check in my spirit and waited. Matt and I talked about timing and whether or not to do adopt through foster care now, or later and after lots of talking and reasoning it out, I felt peace about moving forward with an infant adoption.

Then I listened to another episode of that foster parenting podcast and I was caught up short. They put out the challenge that often when we feel peace about something, it's not necessarily peace we are feeling, but comfort. Often we say we have a peace about something because we are too afraid to do anything else. I absolutely knew this was why I had "peace" about applying for another infant adoption. It felt comfortable to me. I knew how the process worked when you used an agency and I wanted a baby. But I also just kept getting this prompting toward foster care and adopting through that process. So we stalled some more. I waited, hoping God would give us the go ahead toward infant adoption and we continued to save money.

A few weeks ago, I finally made some phone calls to at least get some information about foster care. I had heard that it was best to work with an agency, but the only one I was able to get a hold of didn't work with our county. The other one never returned my calls. I also left a message for someone with the department of child services and received a quick call back, as well as a packet in the mail within a few days. Today we registered to begin the 26 hours of training we will have to complete in order to be foster parents.

My emotions are all over the place. I'm super excited, but I'm also scared to death. I still struggle with that expectation that if God is calling us to do this, He is going to make it easy for us. But He never promised that doing what He asks will be easy. I have this sense of euphoria that I imagine one would have just after stepping out of a plane to go sky diving. It's the excitement of being willing to go where God is telling us to go, even though I'm 100% out of my comfort zone.

I still don't know for sure if this is the direction we will be taking. I'm still struggling not to run the other way out of fear of the unknown. And I'm still having to let go of my desire to have another baby and trust that God knows what is best in His big picture plan. But we are walking forward and doing the next thing until He leads us through or closes the door. Pray for us!

Awana Crazy Hair Night

2010-10-28T14:13:00.000-05:00

Benjamin started in Awana this year as a cubbie. He loves getting to go and loves the fact that he always gets to see two of his aunts and one of his uncles while he's there. I love it because it gets me working on scripture memorization with him, which I have wanted to be working on anyway. So some nights the kids get to dress funny, or wear pajamas, or as was recently the case, have crazy hair or hats. We went with the crazy hair and I'm pretty sure Matt and I had way more fun with it that Ben did.

Lost in Explanation

2010-10-14T13:34:00.001-05:00

This morning Benjamin was looking through "Horton Hatches an Egg" while I was washing dishes. He was very interested in Horton's eyes at different places in the book. When Horton was sitting on the egg in the snow, his eyes were red and Ben asked if Horton was tired. I told him I thought maybe he was cold since he was covered in snow. So at the end of the book when the egg hatches and the bird comes out looking like an elephant with wings, Benjamin wanted to know why his eyes looked the way they did. I told him that Horton was surprised and happy that the the bird came out looking like him. Then I got to thinking about it and thought it was sort of like adoption. The child has many of the same traits as his/her birth family, but also takes on traits of his/her adoptive family over time. Benjamin is just starting to try to grasp adoption, so I tried to explain my thoughts to him about the connections between the story and adoption in terms he could understand. Apparently I didn't do a very good job because he got a funny look on his face and said "when I was born I looked like an elephant?"

Benjamin Funnies

2010-10-12T13:11:00.001-05:00

I just love being a mom! I mean, yes, it's the most difficult job ever, and quite frankly can also lead to more embarrassment than ever, but I love to laugh and Benjamin can make me laugh!

So a few weeks ago, we were out for a walk as a family. A jogger came up behind us and passed us and it just so happened that he was shirtless. Ever the curious one, Benjamin asked us why he didn't have a shirt on. Matt and I were both kind of waiting until the jogger got a little further ahead before answering, but that just made Benjamin ask again even louder. So, we quietly explained that the man was running and that sometimes guys run without shirts because it's too hot for a shirt. He thought for a second and then very loudly proclaimed "that's rude!" We hid our smiles, asked Ben to keep his voice down, and quickly drew his attention to something else. 15 minutes later, the same jogger was now running toward us on the other side of the road. We hoped that perhaps our explanation from before had sufficed and that the poor jogger could run in peace, but it was not to be. As he jogged closer, Benjamin loudly said "that man doesn't have a shirt on!" It was obvious by the face of the poor jogger than he heard us and had probably heard us before. He may never run shirtless again!

And then there was this past week. This is really Matt's story, so I got all the laughter and none of the embarrassment. We went out to eat with my family after church this past Sunday and Benjamin had to use the bathroom. Matt took him into the men's room and as it turned out, he had to do more than just pee. So, after he loudly announced this to Matt, he worked for a bit before saying "daddy, it's too hard. Something's stuck in there. It's not working." But, as if that wasn't embarrassing enough for my poor husband, when he went to wipe him, Benjamin peeked his head under the next stall which of course was occupied and said "hi, what's your name? What are you doing?" Needless to say the poor guy in the next stall did not answer. I'm not sure if Matt or the other stall occupant was the most traumatized by the event.

So there you have it. A tiny little peek into the mind of our son.

Letter Learning

2010-09-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

As Benjamin enters into the age of preschool I feel like I am constantly asked if we plan to send him to preschool. The first time someone mentioned it, I kind of thought it was funny. I never went to preschool and honestly hadn't even considered it for Benjamin. But the more people asked me about it, the more pressure I started to feel. Someone mentioned that they planned to home school for preschool and told me what curriculum they were using. Curriculum? For preschool? I mean, does a three year old really need to be in school? Or even to have a formal "school" time at home? I started searching the web for lists of things Benjamin needed to know before kindergarten and one list freaked me out because he isn't even close to knowing how to read or add and subtract, while another list made me feel like he could skip kindergarten and go to first grade now because he knew everything on it. So that was no help. Finally I decided that maybe some intentional training would be good, but that I wasn't ready for a full on scheduled school time. I decided that my goal for him before kindergarten is recognition of letters by sight and knowledge of the sounds they make, as well as recognition of numbers and the ability to count objects correctly. And if he happens to get more of his colors right in the middle of all that, I will feel like he's doing well. Besides that, I really want him to just be a kid during this time. I want him to learn more about using his imagination for play and I want him to continue his love for books. And more than anything, I want him to have more and more of an understanding of who Jesus is.

So last week I started in on my goal of learning a letter a week. We did "A" and came up with all sorts of things that start with A. Here are a few pictures of our learning one afternoon. SO fun!

We had an apple snack and cut the apple into A's.

His "this is delicious" face.

Cheesin'

Camping Out

2010-09-06T18:51:00.000-05:00

This past month has been a crazy one. Matt is working through his first yearly audit at his new job and has put in a lot of hours, working many late nights as well as every weekend in August. So, despite the fact that he does not get labor day off, he had this whole past weekend off and it was wonderful! We started the weekend off with a date, which is the best way to start one in my opinion. :-) Then we woke up Saturday morning and made our weekly trip to the farmer's market. Have I mentioned that I really love our local farmer's market? Last week there was a guy selling samples of what he called "forbidden ice cream flavors." He had flavors like cinnamon-basil (a type of basil), Italian parsley, burnt caramel, Dijon mustard, black pepper, and a fruit sorbet. It was three samples for a dollar, so we sampled the basil, parsley, and burnt caramel. I liked the cinnamon basil one so much that this week I found the vendor who was selling the cinnamon basil and I purchased a huge big bunch for $1. We sampled the ice cream again this week and ended up with Lemon Ginger, Cardamom, and another one that my forgetful brain will not remember, but they were all really good. And don't worry, we get healthy stuff at the farmer's market too. I got a pretty large pumpkin for $2 and I'm super excited to cook it up and start in on fall baking. I've heard that canned pumpkin may be hard to come by this year, so I plan to stock my freezer with my own. We will not go without pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving if I can help it. Hahaha!

After making our purchases, we headed over to our favorite trail and did a 7 mile walk. This has become a Saturday morning tradition and I love it! We put Benjamin in the stroller and he gets out and runs/walks for a while, then rides for a while. We are usually tired by the end, but invigorated. This Saturday we decided to follow up our walk with a trip to a local dairy bar for some burgers and ice cream. Yum!

Sometime last week I got it in my head that it would be fun to go camping with Benjamin since Matt had the weekend off. We really aren't big campers, but I love the idea of eating and sleeping outdoors. I did some checking into campsites and then realized it was labor day weekend and there was nothing available within decent driving distance. So, I called our apartment office and asked if they would allow us to camp out in the wooded area behind our apartment building. They agreed to it, and so the rest of our Saturday was filled with setting up camp. There are grills out behind our building, so we grilled hot dogs and then had s'mores with the neighbor kids. I think Saturday was the coolest day we've had since Spring, so when it got dark, we settled in for a cold night. We haven't used our tent in four years and it was a bit tight back then, but we managed to get our air mattress and all three of us inside. Benjamin was pretty excited about being in the tent and having flashlights and books and lots of blankets. Unfortunately, the excitement wore off pretty quickly when it was time to actually sleep. I'm not sure how much he slept, but he was up many times throughout the night and at 6:45, we finally decided he was not going to sleep any more in the tent, so we headed in. Can I just say that I HIGHLY recommend camping out so close to home? :-) Bathroom trips are easier, forgotten items can be retrieved, and when little man is ready to be done camping, we can just head on in. We had everything cleaned up by 8:30 and Benjamin was down for a nap by 10:30. Needless to say, we were all really tired! But when we decided to head inside in the morning, Benjamin said "It was a fun night. I like the tent!" So, all the work and exhaustion were completely worth it!

It's the Little Things

2010-08-25T07:35:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it really is the little things that make my day. And sometimes I think I'm just an odd sort of girl. I walked into Walmart a couple of weeks ago and was doing my normal shopping when I noticed a mop display in the middle of the aisle. Now let me just tell you that I HATE mopping. Not sure why, but I do. That and laundry are my two least favorite chores. Maybe it's because neither of them stay done for more than about .03 seconds, I don't know, but I just don't like doing them. The laundry I do regularly because as much as I hate it, I do like wearing clothes. But the mopping, well, I'm not about to tell you how infrequently it gets done. So here I was minding my own business and came upon this mop. Not sure why it caught my eye other than the fact that it looked like another mop I had tried and loved, but couldn't justify because I had to purchase special mop pads and refill cleaner for it. You know the one. Well this one was just like it except it came with a washable pad and a refillable bottle that you could fill with whatever cleaner you wanted. I was sold! But, being the good little housewife that I aspire to be, I decided not to make an impulse purchase. However, now that I knew about it, I wasn't about to use the old mop and bucket method I had at home, so my floor just got dirtier and dirtier. I finally broke down and bought it this past weekend. And no, I am not selling this mop, but I do really like it. I guess it caters to the lazy side of me. No bucket to drag around after me and no mop ringing between each re-wetting. I like to tell myself that I'll mop more because of it. We'll see. But at least my job was made easier.

But what did I do with the old mop you ask? Well:

It turned into a horse

And then a shepherd's staff

And then a guitar!

Gettin' Real

2010-08-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

Most of this blog is dedicated to funny stories and sharing the happy times we have as a family. But sometimes there just isn't anything funny to write about and for some odd reason, I feel compelled to keep this silly blog going, so today's post might get a little real.

Living in a new (as an adult) city without close friends and missing that southern hospitality we encountered when we first moved to Texas is hard. Living here and having a sweet little boy in the midst of the very trying Threes is even harder. I have never seen the depths of my own selfishness as I have seen it in the past several weeks. I really want this parenting thing to be easy. I want to do what the parenting books say to do and have it work quickly. I want Benjamin to desire to obey. I want to not have to be inconvenienced by his lack of obedience. I want to sleep a whole night through instead of being awakened at 4am. I want to have a little peace and quiet. I I I I I. And yet when I look back on my life, I've never really had to give up that "I". Granted, I've dealt with a lot of circumstances that didn't go my way. Infertility and having to let go of a child we thought we were supposed to adopt taught me a lot about not being in control of my circumstances. But now I am finding myself facing the fact that I want to be in control of my son, and my reasons are often driven by selfishness. And when I find that I cannot control him, I find it difficult not to become frustrated with him.

Today, after almost a full week of Ben deciding to get up somewhere between 2am and 4am, we are both tired. After an attempted nap, I got up and decided I needed desperately to meet with the Lord while Ben was still sleeping. And wouldn't you know it, my study today was on patience. Not patience with circumstances, but patience with people. Not only that, but I was reminded that I cannot achieve that kind of patience on my own. It's a fruit of the Spirit and can only be attained through His power. On the one hand that's so freeing. On the other hand, I feel like my selfish ambitions so often keep me from being filled with the Spirit and bearing His fruit. Living Spirit filled is just not something that happens once and continues. I have to be surrendered every single minute of the day. And lately, I haven't been.

For the past several weeks, I have been seeing a chiropractor about a hip problem I've had for a couple of years. Ben always goes with me and usually we don't have to wait at all before going back to our room. Today however was a super busy day and we waited in a full waiting room. Benjamin does not have a shy bone in his body and usually thinks that if there is another person around, they are desperate to interact with him. I love this about him, but I'm usually cautious about encouraging him because he quickly gets out of control and starts doing crazy things to show off. One of the ladies sitting next to me kept staring at me and for some reason I just felt judged. She said something to me about how energetic Benjamin was and I said something jokingly about how amazing it was that he had that much energy since he'd been up since 4am. She quickly told me I should probably think about putting him to bed later. Right after that, the showing off escalated and after Ben threw magazines at two patients and was about to dump the contents of the trash can on another, I decided it was time to take him outside to settle down. As we walked out the door, Benjamin said "where'm I going?" That same lady said "sounds to me like you need a good paddling." It was all I could do to keep from losing it. I mean, in reality she was right, but did she really think I would just do it right there in the office, or in the front yard of the office? I stewed about it for quite some time before finally seeing myself and how often I've judged others around me without really knowing their circumstances. Before having kids, I was one of the first to look at a harried mother and her misbehaving child (ren) and think that if she would just give them a good spanking or be a better mom, they would be much better kids. Ha! So here I am getting lessons both in humility and in patience.

And that's enough rambling for today. Maybe next week will be funnier. :)

A Three Year Old Boy's Prayer

2010-08-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

"Lord Jesus, thank you for poop, and dirt, and bikes, and salmon with cheese on it, and for cars, and for mommy and daddy. In Jesus Name, Amen."

This was Benjamin's exact prayer before bed tonight. I think it completely sums up the thoughts of a little boy: Poop, Dirt, Food, Cars, and don't forget Mommy and Daddy.

Summer Activities

2010-08-10T15:46:00.000-05:00

This summer I joined a mom's group here in town called Mothering as a Career Club. The group offers play dates and mom's nights and I thought it would be a good way to get to know some other moms with kids Ben's age. The first month I was a little shy about getting involved and we were also pretty busy with family stuff, so I didn't do much. But this month I was determined to go to some of the play dates. It's been really fun and has allowed Benjamin to be around some other kids and me to see what there is to do around here. Last week we got to see a fire truck and Benjamin got to spray the hose. We also checked out the local gymnastics place and they divided the kids up according to age. Benjamin had a great time jumping on the trampoline and jumping into a pit of foam blocks. Pretty sure tumbling will be in order as an activity when the yucky winter weather hits. Today we went and visited a local cheese farm and got to hear how they make cheese and even take a look at where they milk their cows. We got some yummy raw cheese and I also purchased some raw milk which I am excited about. I think Benjamin's favorite part was the homemade ice cream. He is definitely my son with his love of that sweet treat. ;-) I took my camera to the firetruck demo but forgot it for both the other activities. I really need to be better about that. But here are some fun pictures of Ben spraying the hose and sitting in the truck.

He was having a pretty serious discussion with the fireman

Dressed for Church

2010-08-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful weeks when it comes to mommying. I'm pretty sure that whoever called the twos terrible hadn't even gotten to the threes yet. I know I'm not the first mother to wish for this, but some days I wish little man had come with a "here's what will get through to him" manual. I struggle to maintain consistency and lets not even talk about maintaining sanity. I so desperately desire for Benjamin to know and understand his need for a Savior, but some days I get so focused on behavior that I forget about the bigger picture and become a yucky angry mom. But despite the fact that I fail daily at being a Spirit filled mother, God's grace is so evident. He gives me reasons to laugh in the middle of it all and even lets those reasons for laughter come from the very source of my frustration. So, this past Sunday, we were getting ready for church and this is what Benjamin said he wanted to wear:

He came into my room sporting his tank top PJ shirt, along with an inside out long sleeved PJ shirt, topped by his inside out and backwards polo shirt. For the bottom, he decided to just wear plaid shorts. Underwear is way over rated. And in this house, that underwear can sometimes be found in the fridge anyway.

Catch Up Time

2010-07-26T13:40:00.001-05:00

Well we have now been in Indiana for four months and I think we are starting to feel a little more settled. I still have a lot of days (like today) when I really miss San Antonio and the familiarity of good friends. But I'm also really finding some things I love about a smaller city. We have really enjoyed the weekly farmer's market here and while my frugal side won't let me buy much at a time, the fresh produce, grass fed beef, free range chicken, and fresh eggs have been delicious. I really love summer produce and it's been fun getting it straight from the farmers. We've also been a bit spoiled by my parents' sharing from their garden as well.

The biggest news of the month for us is that we finally sold our house!!! When we listed it for sale last November, I never dreamed it would take quite this long to sell. Especially because we kept lowering the price. We received our first offer at the end of June and after a little negotiating, we accepted the offer. But after having the inspection done, the buyer gave us a lengthy list of pretty picky things she wanted done and we began to wonder if she was for real. (One thing she wanted was for us to clean out some lint that was stuck in the dryer vent) We picked a couple of the somewhat reasonable things and told her we would do those, but she ended up backing out. Needless to say, it was frustrating and we were very ready to be free of the house. But the Lord's timing is always perfect and he brought us another buyer two weeks later. And this one paid cash, so the closing was done in just a week. It's amazing how free it feels to know that we no longer have an empty house sitting 1200 miles away. I think after that experience we will be content to be renters for quite some time.

Benjamin went in for his three year check up this past week. Let me just say that finding a good doctor is yet another thing that makes me miss San Antonio. There just aren't a whole lot of options, and I really didn't like the one we went to. But, all that aside, Benjamin was super healthy and has gotten to be quite a big boy. When he was born, he was in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. This didn't surprise me since neither of his birthparents were all that tall. But as he has gotten older, he has gradually increased in that percentage. By his second birthday he was in the 75th percentile and this year, he measured 40" and was 36lbs, putting him in the 89th percentile for weight and the 95th for height. People are always asking if he is tall for his age, and having grown up in a family of tall people, I usually don't really think about it, but I guess he is. It still amazes me that I have a three year old already.

This past weekend we celebrated Matt's 30th birthday. I think they say this is officially when you are supposed to act like an adult. Not sure exactly what that means, but we had fun celebrating anyway. Matt's parents came down for his birthday and stayed here with Benjamin so I could take Matt on a little surprise getaway to Indy. We have had three overnight getaways since moving here and I think we are officially spoiled. It's amazing how refreshing one night away can be.

I made cheesecake for Matt's birthday and Benjamin had to get in on the action with the candle blowout

I think that about sums up the news for this little family.

My Little Man is Three!

2010-07-08T12:54:00.002-05:00

This year has by far been the most exciting of Benjamin's three birthdays. I LOVE birthdays and I love that the excitement of them is being passed on to him. I remember laying in bed before my fifth birthday and not being able to go to sleep because I was so excited. And I remember the year my dad got me this huge warehouse size pack of gum as one of my gifts. We were only allowed to chew it on Sundays and special occasions, so it must have gone stale before I finished it, but it is a fun birthday memory. But back to Benjamin. He's been talking about his birthday off and on for the past month two months. It was about two months ago that I asked him what kind of cake he wanted this year. He told me he wanted an HEB cake, which of course made me miss Texas, but even if we'd been there, I wouldn't have bought his cake. Then, a while later, after our conversations had moved on to other things, he suddenly told me he wanted a cement mixer cake. I made a train cake for his first birthday and it was no small feat for me, but I just couldn't imagine how I was going to make a cement mixer cake. So we came up with a construction themed cake instead. Benjamin and I went to the party store and he helped me pick things out. Just seeing his excitement made me want to buy the whole store. It also made me realize that this may be the last themed party we do because they are crazy expensive. But this year was construction themed, so we had caution tape, balloons, construction hats, and other fun decor. And I made a construction themed cake complete with several plastic trucks, but unfortunately lacking in the cement mixer department. Apparently those are not considered part of the construction sets when they make them available for purchase. Anyway, this year was different than the past two because our families were able to come for his party. We had a beautiful hot sunny day and had his party at the park. Benjamin could hardly keep his hands off the cake and we kept having to tell him to wait to open presents, but it was still a lot of fun for him. This was the first year he was fully aware of the fact that the day was all about him and I loved watching him experience it.

Since we celebrated his party a few days earlier than his actual birthday, I wanted to make sure the day itself was special too. He and I spent the morning playing games and then met daddy for lunch at McDonalds. Back when we were in San Antonio and living in our house while trying to sell it, I'm embarrassed to say that we often went there at least once a week and sometimes more if we had last minute showings. But, since we've moved, life has been a little less hectic and we really haven't eaten lunch out much at all. I think it had been almost two months since Benjamin had had McD's. (As a side note, I totally think the whole lawsuit against McD's for putting toys in their happy meals is ridiculous. It's the play area that draws my kid and none of the McD's here have them. (side side note, even if McD's is totally unhealthy, you have to be a kid every once in a while, and I really wish there were play areas at the McD's here) ) ANYWAY, he was pretty excited about his food and seeing daddy at a restaurant for lunch, so it was fun. To finish off a fun day for him, we spread sheets out in the living room and got pizza and ate it while we watched Veggietales. We had planned to let him sleep in the living room and do sort of a family camp out, but he was antsy and just wouldn't stay still long enough to go to sleep. We finally took him to his room around 10 and he almost seemed relieved and was asleep within minutes. Maybe we'll try the family camp out another year. :)

Benjamin Funnies

2010-07-06T07:11:00.000-05:00

Benjamin loves to talk about the things he will be able to do when he gets older. Often when he asks to do or have something and I tell him no, he says "when I get older I can have it." Well, this morning he discovered a bag of toys I had put away because he had outgrown them and I already have plenty of baby toys stored away. Of course he wanted to get into them and I asked him to stop. He told me he wanted to play with them when he got older and I told him they were for babies. His response: "When I get older I can be a baby and play with them."

Babysitting

2010-06-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

One of the things I love about living back in my home state and being close to my family is having eager and willing babysitters. My sister Esther has become our regular source for date nights and lately Benjamin has been asking me for her to come over so mommy and daddy can go on a date. I think he really loves having her here. Not too long ago, I downloaded pictures from the camera and discovered some really cute ones of Ben eating an ice cream sandwich and having a good time with his Aunt Esther, so I thought I'd share the cuteness.

Once Upon a Green Smoothie Morning

2010-06-25T13:42:00.000-05:00

Sometimes this is what breakfast looks like!!

Brainwashing isn't working

2010-06-15T12:40:00.000-05:00

I do not like motorcycles! To me they are a reckless and dangerous way to travel and besides the potentially good gas mileage, I simply cannot see why one would choose to put their life in so much danger by riding one. Oh, and did I mention I am also VERY opinionated? Hahaha! OK, so I'm guessing there must be a thrill to riding them or something. But, since I am a mom and can't bear to think of anything happening to my son, I've attempted to brainwash him in this area of transportation. It worked for a while. We would be out and Benjamin would see a motorcycle and in the very same sentence he would point it out to me and tell me how dangerous they were. But that was then. Now, he just wants to ride them. Of course, he also wants to ride a race car and a digger. But over Memorial Day weekend we spent some time with Matt's family and his aunt. Some friends of theirs came up to visit and arrived on a motorcycle. Benjamin of course wanted to ride. I did inform him that sitting on it was probably all he was going to get to do while he was living under my roof, but he sure enjoyed getting to act like he was riding. I think this momma has some praying and some letting go to do in the future. :)

Remembering

2010-05-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

Remembering Olana MacArthur

6/11/84 - 5/27/09

I still remember the day I first heard her voice. I was in our hopeful baby room putting the finishing touches on the paint when the phone rang. We rarely used our home phone, so every time it rang, I felt nervous anticipation. When Matt answered the phone, I could tell it was not the usual sales call. He said he needed to go get me and mouthed "it's about a baby" to me before I got on the other phone. And then I heard her voice for the first time. She was really nervous, but wanted to assure us that this was the choice she both needed and wanted to make for her son. I can still almost feel the shock and excitement and nervousness all wrapped together in that moment.

And I remember going to her last ultrasound before Benjamin was born. She looked beautiful that day, with her belly and that pregnant woman glow. And she was always so bubbly. I remember watching her greet the other pregnant women in the waiting room with excitement because they were there for their babies too. She never knew a stranger. I believe this is where Benjamin gets his outgoing personality.

And I vividly remember sitting at lunch on a Saturday afternoon and getting a call from her telling us that she was getting ready to head to the hospital. We showered and packed bags and left as soon as possible. I remember seeing her in the delivery room and watching her go through contractions. I remember holding her hand and feeling amazed by her strength. I remember how she kept her sense of humor, even through the delivery and I remember her when she saw Benjamin for the very first time. She kept saying over and over how beautiful he was. And indeed she was right.

I remember spending the night with her during her first night home from the hospital, and how she cared so much about him that she breastfed him as long as she could. And I remember the agony in her eyes the day she placed him in my arms and entrusted the roll of mommy to me. To this day, I don't know how she found the strength to make such a loving decision.

I could keep on with the memories and I'm so thankful for that. Open adoption is not always easy, but it's a beautiful thing. I'm thankful that I got to know her, if only a little, so that when I look at Benjamin and see his outgoing personality and his fun and crazy silliness, I know it was from her. And I'm thankful to have seen such a picture of sacrificial love and to be able to share that with Benjamin. He still remembers her and talks about the last time we saw her. We went to a park in Austin and rode the train and played on the playground. I love that he sees pictures from that day and says "you member Olana and the train mommy?" And I always will remember.

Visual

2010-05-19T15:44:00.000-05:00

I love it when I get to see something that has God's fingerprints all over it. I feel like God has been teaching me a lot about His love lately and about exhibiting unconditional love to those around me. He's been teaching me that His love is not based on things I do or even on Him doing things for me. If he answers my prayer with a no or a not right now, it doesn't mean he loves me less. So I guess he's been teaching me about trusting His love without having to have a daily visual or emotional feeling of it. So, when He gave me that visual, I think it made me stand even more in awe of Him and His love and protection.

My visual happened yesterday morning. I was up visiting my sister Rachel and her husband Craig while Matt was away at a conference. Monday night we decided to venture out in the rain to do some fun shopping. We spent about an hour and a half at the mall and then went home to put our boys to bed. Tuesday morning we were sitting at breakfast and I was talking to Matt on the phone. He mentioned that our bank had called and that they had said they had a question. My mind immediately went to all those scare stories you hear about people supposedly getting calls from their bank, but it not being their bank at all, so I warned him not to give any personal information (as if my amazing man isn't smart enough to think of this on his own). Matt went on to tell me how it was funny because when he tried to call them back, it was an actual branch. Then I started to panic. I hadn't even used my debit card and we really don't even use that bank anymore. Then it clicked that the area code of the bank he had received the call from was in my sister's town. I frantically went to my purse in search of my debit card, picturing someone having tried to make a large purchase and overdrafting our account. My wallet was gone. Since nothing else was missing from my purse, I figured I must have dropped it, but it's amazing how quickly you forget what all important things are in your wallet. Long story short, after calling one credit card company, I finally got a hold of someone from the bank who informed me that an employee of that bank had found my wallet and brought it to that branch. I nearly cried with relief. And then I thought about all the other scenarios and realized the amazing visual God had just given me of his love and protection. Aside from the obvious protection of our finances, God also protected me from driving half way home without my wallet. I would only have discovered it when I went to get gas and then I would have been stranded. And what are the odds that an employee of the bank we don't even have here in town, but that does have branches where my sister lives would find my wallet and just happen to be able to take it to work where she could find our phone numbers and call us to let us know? Like I said, it has the fingerprints of God all over it. He's so amazing anyway, but I love it when he gives me a visual.

Potty Training 101

2010-05-13T13:25:00.002-05:00

Potty training is such a funny thing. I mean, for two and a half years, Benjamin remained perfectly content to do his business in his diaper. Then all of the sudden, we told him it was time to do something different and expected him to get it within days or at least no more than a couple weeks. The miraculous thing is that withing less than a week and a half, he was mostly there. Kids are amazing!

After we got pretty well settled in here, I decided it was time to do the dreaded potty training. We tried it last summer and he was not ready at all, so we gave it a break. He began showing lots of signs of readiness back in January and February, but since I knew a move was on the horizon, I wasn't about to potty train and then deal with regression after the move, so we waited. I read a book and got advice and it was all great, but the best advice anyone ever gave me was telling me not to worry about using a particular method, but rather to go with what seemed to work for Benjamin. So, being that Benjamin is a major food lover, and being that my mostly health food buying self never has much junk in the house, we made a trip to the store for some fun treats. Benjamin was super excited about his treats and told everyone on the cookie aisle that they were for potty training. We came home with mini oreos, animal crackers, fruit snacks, and gold fish. My first brilliant idea was to let him pick which treat he wanted every time we had a success. I decided to set the timer and he got a treat both for being dry when the timer went off, and for every time he went on the potty. Unfortunately I underestimated the power of the treats and Benjamin managed to go just enough for a treat and then come back to go again 5 minutes later for another treat. He stayed dry for most of the morning, but was tired of it by the afternoon and by the end of the day, he was having lots of accidents and was so hyped up on sugar that it put me in a super bad mood and I felt little hope that we would ever get anywhere. So we gave up for the night and decided to start again the next day.

Day two was mostly the same. He was a mess from all the sugar and I was frustrated and tired. So I called my mom and she suggested only giving him a treat for being dry when the timer went off. So I tried it. And it worked!!! We started with 15 minute intervals and still had some accidents, but I never prompted him to sit on the potty unless the timer had gone off. I explained to him that the way to stay dry was to go on the potty if he had to go. It didn't click right away, but pretty soon, he got it and would go to the potty unprompted. It was amazing! I'm pretty sure it was one of the most tiring weeks of parenting I've had since he was getting up in the middle of the night to eat, but he did it and I'm so proud of him. I have not changed a poopy diaper in more than three weeks and it's awesome!

It's been about 3 1/2 weeks since we began and I think he may actually be having more accidents now than he had right after he got the hang of it. But, I think they are mostly just him playing and forgetting to stop and think about going to the potty. I hear that's normal and I'm trying not to get frustrated by all the extra laundry. I'm just so glad it's mostly behind us. :)

Now for the funnies:

During the second week of potty training I was feeling cooped up in the house and decided to go for a walk. Benjamin of course had to go while I was out and since we were kind of on a wooded trail, I told him it was time to learn about going outside. He LOVED it and kept telling me he had to go again. I told him he needed to wait, but before we got in the car to go home, I decided to let him try again. He got all ready to go and then spotted a puffy white dandelion and moved over to aim at it. I mean is he a boy or what?!!

Getting Benjamin to go poop on the potty was challenging and took several days (which from what I hear is not bad at all). Now that he's finally figured it out, poop has become a common word in our home. He can be heard ending his prayers with the word, analyzing his accomplishment in the toilet and telling me what's there, or telling me about the baby snakes in the toilet. Again, all boy!

And I'm not sure how funny this is, but when I first began thinking about potty training, I was very set against using pull-ups. I was pretty convinced they were a waste of money and would make Benjamin just think he was in a diaper. But, before we started up with the potty training, I decided to buy some just for times when I was dropping him off with other people like at church or the Y. My sister had given me a coupon, so I felt pretty good about it. We got home with them and I never thought much about them again since we used underwear for the at home training. It wasn't until the end of the first week that I decided to venture out to the Y with him and wanted to put him in a pull-up. They were nowhere to be found. I searched everywhere and finally determined that I must have left them at the store. I was frustrated about having spent that much money and then wasting it, but determined to get to the Y, so I took him in underwear. He stayed dry! Now here's the funny part. 3 weeks after starting the potty training, I was moving some stuff around on the shelf of his closet and what do you think I found? haha! I guess my theory that they were unnecessary was correct. However, we will definitely be using them for trips and they came in very handy this past weekend when I traveled to visit a friend. :)

Easter Pictures

2010-04-27T14:37:00.007-05:00

Well it's a little late, but I'm finally posting Easter pictures. We enjoyed being with my family this Easter and seeing some family members that we hadn't seen since we moved away. It was great to all be together to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

Benjamin and his cousin Stephen had matching outfits.

Ben's first egg hunt. He was so excited about the candy that we had to convince him to keep hunting.

Playing with trains. This boy can always be found where the vehicles are.

Benjamin Funnies

2010-04-21T12:15:00.004-05:00

I really need to be better about writing all these down, but here are a few little funnies from today.

-Benjamin was singing Jesus Loves Me this morning and sang "They are sweet but He is strong."

-While playing duplos this morning, we were making a house and Benjamin said his little duplo man was having breakfast. When I asked what he was eating, he said "cakepans." (pancakes)

-We have been totally spoiled by having Matt home for lunch just about every day since we moved. Benjamin looks forward to it, but as soon as Matt gets home and is half way through lunch, Benjamin starts telling him "bye bye, see you later." Before Matt goes back to work, he usually brushes his teeth and sometimes blows his nose. (I know, who cares?) So today when Matt told Benjamin that it wasn't quite time for him to go back to work yet, Benjamin said "you have to get your boogers daddy?" He's so observant of our routines!!

The Dancing Continues

2010-04-14T07:00:00.002-05:00

Benjamin's love of music and dancing continues and he makes me laugh all the time. I love how serious he is about his dancing in this movie until he realizes he has an audience. Then he cracks up.

**I'm not sure if it's just my computer being crazy, but you may have to manually move the video forward a tiny bit to get the video to start playing.

Settling In

2010-04-13T12:17:00.002-05:00

I'm always amazed at how much work it is to move. Since I was spoiled rotten by having movers, I didn't have to do the heavy lifting, but it's always such a job to take all of our belongings that each have their place in one house and move them to another. I still have a few items that haven't found places yet, but considering that we gave up a garage and 475 square feet of living space when we moved to our apartment, I feel like we are doing well.

So it's been two and a half weeks since we left San Antonio. We are finally starting to feel settled. I still don't really think of it as home, but I think that will take some time. It's hard not to constantly compare and refer to things in San Antonio as "we haves" and things here and "they haves." But I'll get there. After three trips to the Drivers Licence Branch, I finally have my new license. They won't let you show teeth in your picture, and I felt like I managed a semi-natural closed mouth smile for the first picture they took, but they said I had too much hair in my face, so they retook it. The second one felt pretty good too, but the picture was crooked, so again, they had to retake it. Benjamin was with me and was sitting at my feet under the counter in front of me and by the third picture, he was losing patience and I looked down to tell him we were almost done. I barely looked up in time for the third picture and could tell it wouldn't be very good. But it was good enough for them. :)

The weather here has been amazing. This time of year in Indiana is usually cold and rainy with maybe a couple of days of sunshine and a couple warm (maybe 60's) days thrown in. But since we got here a little over two weeks ago, it's only rained maybe three times and been cold maybe 4 days. I feel so blessed. One of my most difficult things about this move was knowing there would be a lot less sunshine and warmth here. I know this is unusual and that it won't be this way every year, but I'm so thankful for sunshine and 70 degree weather.

One thing that's been fun has been rediscovering a park I played at as a kid. It's been totally redone and it's amazing. And the best part is that it's super close to our apartment. Benjamin loves it and I'm pretty sure we will be spending a lot of time there. We also discovered a paved trail that runs through the city for walking/running/biking. We've been a few times already and love it. I'd forgotten how much I love Indiana in the Spring. Everything is in bloom and it smells so good outside.

There have been some hard things too. My first grocery shopping trip was rough. Anyone who knows me knows I like my healthy food and especially produce. My first trip out I had a hard time finding even a decent head of lettuce and found that the prices of most things were quite a bit higher than they were in S.A. But, I did end up going to another store here that had a much better selection at least, even if it was expensive. The other hard thing is that to my knowledge, the only gym here with child care is the Y. I absolutely loved our gym in San Antonio and was pretty religious about going at least three days a week. That was one of the first things I researched before moving and it was pretty hard finding out that my only option was a Y. But, I decided it would be OK and planned to sign up. I went to visit it this past week and was majorly disappointed. All their equipment is crammed into a pretty tiny room with very little space to walk between machines and no place for stretching and abs. So now I'm trying to figure out how to get a regular work-out in. I'm grateful the weather has at least been warm and nice enough to get outside.

We started looking for a church this past Sunday. This is one of the hardest things about moving. The church we visited was nice, but it certainly wasn't our old church. I do realize that we just won't find our old church here unless everyone from our old church moves here :) but it's hard to feel like we are shopping for a church. We plan to visit each church on our list twice and then make our decision. We'd appreciate your prayers for wisdom and for courage in being outgoing enough to make new friends.

I promise that my blogging won't turn into a running description of boring details, but I wanted to let you all know where we are at. :)

Digging Out

2010-04-02T06:53:00.004-05:00

I felt so spoiled during this move as I had packers come in and pack up all of my dishes and kitchen appliances, as well as several of our wall decorations and other breakables. But my goodness did they use a lot of packing paper in their boxes!!! The picture below is the paper from ONE dish box. It filled up three trash bags. But our dishes did come through unbroken and Benjamin thought all the paper was great.

Deliciousness

2010-04-01T07:05:00.002-05:00

Well the house is still a wreck and I feel like I spend as much time moving unopened boxes around a room so I can arrange the furniture as I do actually unpacking those boxes, but last night it was time for a real meal. We have eaten out more in the past two weeks than I ever remember doing and when we haven't been eating out, we've been just eating strange assortments of things we have around the house that usually aren't all that great for us. So, last night I wanted a yummy meal that tasted good and was healthy. Not sure why, but ever since going out to Red Lobster with our friends Todd and Elisa before leaving San Antonio and tasting their coconut shrimp, I've been thinking about trying to make a coconut chicken. I finally did it last night and it was yummy! Even Benjamin thought it was good and he informed me all afternoon as I purchased, thawed, and cooked the chicken that he didn't like chicken. And best of all, it's super simple.

Coconut Chicken
1 lb chicken
1 1/4 c dried unsweetened shredded coconut
3 T virgin coconut oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 avocado

Begin by pounding the chicken with a meat tenderizer until it's less than a half inch thick. Then cut it into bite size pieces. Place chicken in a bowl along with coconut and stir until the chicken is evenly mixed with the coconut. Sprinkle on salt and pepper and stir. Melt coconut oil in a skillet. Then place chicken in the skillet and cook on medium until chicken is done and coconut is just starting to brown. Remove from heat and serve with slices of salted avocado.

I served this along with asparagus and quinoa and it was delicious. Unfortunately it was so delicious and we were so hungry that I didn't think to take a picture. So you will just have to take my word on the fact that it looked as pretty as it tasted and try it yourself. :)

Update

2010-03-29T09:30:00.002-05:00

Well I can't find the camera cord and I don't really have time for a real update since I need to get back to unpacking, but we got to Indiana and while reality has not really set in yet, we are enjoying it so far. Benjamin did great during the long drive here and seems to be adjusting OK to our new place. I think we may have built him up a bit too much about our move though because every time he asks for something he can't have, he says, "it's for Indiana," or "When we get to Indiana, we'll have ..." But he'll adjust to the fact that we are already here. He's loving being closer to family and I think he's just a bit upset that we don't actually live with my parents and siblings. He keeps asking to go home, and I think he's referring to their house.

OK, well I need to get back to those boxes. I'll post some pictures and moving stories soon!

Big News

2010-03-10T14:09:00.002-06:00

*Warning: Super long and a little bit emotionally written post* :)
I think it's a bit funny that I titled this blog "The Davis Family News" but I haven't yet blogged about the biggest new we have at the moment. I'm pretty sure that most of you who read this know, but in case you don't, we are moving! We are leaving the big sunny beautiful state of Texas and returning to the Midwest to be closer to our families. When we moved to Texas well over six years ago we were super excited about the adventure of a new place, but I don't think either one of us considered it a permanent move. Then we found our awesome church, made some great friends, Matt went to school, we adopted Benjamin, and I think I fell in love with Texas and wanted to stay forever. But now here we are, moving back home again. The Lord has provided a great job for Matt and what appears to be a good cheap place to live (which is good since our house still needs to sell) that's close to Matt's new work and my family. We move in two weeks and I can't even totally comprehend it all. I feel like I'm just trying to soak it all in before we leave because I know that it may be a very long time before we come back. Last weekend we took Benjamin down to the Riverwalk and ate at Rainforest Cafe. He wasn't all that impressed at the time because they had a person in a frog costume wandering from table to table the whole time and he couldn't relax because he was scared to death. But we splurged and bought him a cup with a frog on the top and now he thinks it's the best place ever. Anyway, we decided to walk to the Rivercenter Mall and went and sat in the center area where they always have music playing and the wind is always blowing. Benjamin enjoyed watching the boats as they went by and I got lost in memories. I could just picture Matt and I about a week after we moved here. We went down to the river all the time then because it was new, fun, and free, but on this particular time, we went and got Marble Slab ice cream and sat on the steps outside eating it super fast because it was August and the ice cream was melting everywhere. Silly, but a fun memory that made me tear up. I know that we will build memories wherever we are, but it's hard to leave here knowing it may be years before we come back and revisit those memories. But as He so faithfully does, God has been teaching me even in the middle of my fear and sadness over this move. He's been reminding me that He is the same God no matter where we are. And He's been challenging me with the truth that He is all I need. It's easy to say He's all I need, but with this coming season of some major change, I think that truth is going to have some major impact in how I handle the change.

So that's one side of me. I feel like I have two different people inside of me sometimes. One is scared to death about this move and all the change it involves and the other is super crazy excited about living close to family again. I mean, when we left for Texas, all my siblings but one were little kids. Now my oldest younger brother is in college and my next brother is graduating high school. Two of my sisters are beautiful teenagers and two of my other sisters are getting close to that (They are beautiful, just not teenagers)way too fast. And then there's my youngest brother who's eight. Benjamin is SO excited to go get to play with his uncle John. I have such good memories from growing up of playing with cousins and I'm super excited for Benjamin to grow up around our families. So there you have it. I can't make up my mind. I'm crying one minute because of all I'll miss and I'm so excited I'm ready to leave the next because of where we'll be. So, I can't wait to see what God has in store for this next season of our lives.

Benjamin Funnies

2010-02-25T17:07:00.002-06:00

Last night I was on the way home from church and as we were driving, we came through an area that had that distinctive smell of skunk. Benjamin from the back seat said "Mommy, I smell toast!" I said "no, that's not toast, that's skunk." To which he replied "Oh, skunk, smells goooood!" To each his own I guess.

Life with a Boy

2010-02-24T07:49:00.003-06:00

Here is just a glimpse of my life with a two year old boy. I'm pretty sure that cars around here have a life of their own and end up in every corner of every room and even sometimes in a few unexpected places. Like when I was making pizza dough and Benjamin was up helping. I turned away from the mixer to put some things away and suddenly my mixer started making a horrible noise. I panicked because my sister just got me that mixer for Christmas and I thought maybe it was broken. I rushed over and looked inside the bowl only to discover that it was Benjamin's truck clunking around with the dough. And then there is the nativity set that I still haven't put away because Benjamin love playing with it so much. I often find him giving Mary ride to the stable in style and I'm pretty sure Joseph will never be going back to the donkey again after driving this thing. I love being mom to a boy!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2010-02-14T21:35:00.005-06:00

I love Valentines Day!!! Not really sure why, but I've always loved it, even before I had my own special someone to share it with. Maybe it's just that I love pink and red, or maybe I am just a girl who loves any excuse to celebrate, but even in college before Matt and I started dating when I was surrounded by girls who hated the day if they didn't have a boyfriend, I still got excited about it and loved all the balloons and flowers and pretty hearts that were left for other girls at the dorm desk. What can I say, I'm a sucker for romance. Nine years ago, Matt and I had been dating for 9 days and I wasn't even sure we were "doing" valentine's day. I made him chocolate chip cookies and a homemade card and wasn't sure if I should sign my name "love, Sharon" or just "Sharon." I don't even remember what I decided on. But I do remember sitting and working at the desk in my dorm lobby and seeing Matt walk in with a vase full of light pink and white roses and being giddy that I was one of the girls getting flowers and that I was totally in love with the boy giving them to me. And here we are 9 years later and I am so blessed with an amazing man who loves me unconditionally (and I don't always make that easy) and who I will love and adore for the rest of my life. OK, yes I'm a bit sappy, but my sweet husband flew to IN today for two interviews coming up tomorrow and Tuesday and I miss him like crazy!

So, being the romantic that I am, I love planning fun things to do for Valentine's Day. We've done different things different years, but this year we had a date night planned and decided to cook dinner together. And it was YUMMMM!!! I love good food, and this was some GOOD food. We began the evening with avocado soup topped with shrimp and homemade salsa. It was fun to try something new, but ended up being a bit rich for my taste. Then we followed the soup with a salad of spinach, red leaf, tomatoes, cucumbers, pecans, dried cranberries and Gorgonzola cheese topped with a homemade honey mustard dressing. Mmmmm. I love Gorgonzola. Since we had several courses to make, we kind of made one course, ate it, and then made the next one. Our dinner ended up being a three and a half hour event, but it was fun to just enjoy working together in the kitchen and taking our time. So, for the main part of our meal, we went all out and had asparagus sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and garlic powder, Angus Blue Cheese burgers topped with Gorgonzola cheese (found these at Costco and they were amazing!), Shrimp Scampi made with fresh lemon juice, butter and fresh parsley (so good!), and our first and probably only attempt at lobster tail. I had lobster at a restaurant a long time ago and at the time I really liked it, but I was not too fond of this one. I think we may have overcooked it slightly, but I also think I just don't like it as well as I remembered. But it was fun to try it. After the main course, we were both pretty full, so we did the dishes and talked for a little bit before having coffee and dessert. We splurged on dessert and got a piece of cheesecake from the cheesecake factory to split and had the best coffee ever (Stewarts Decaf Cinnamon Coffee Cake) to go with it. Delicious! I will certainly be needing my boot camp class tomorrow, but it was SO worth it. :)

Here are the pictures of our fun night:

Matt splurged big time and got me roses, a balloon and chocolate. And he has brought me fully over to the dark side in the chocolate department. When we got married, I was a milk chocolate girl all the way. Now I don't really even like milk chocolate. Kind of feels like just a lot of sweet and not enough real chocolate flavor. I just recently discovered Ghirardelli 86% dark chocolate. It's creamy and delicious and one square has less than two grams of sugar. That makes this girl happy!!!

I love this man so much!

Chocolate!!

2010-02-06T19:57:00.004-06:00

Well our week of chocolate was not supposed to begin until tomorrow or possibly Monday, but today was a crazy day with three showings on our house and Matt having to go in to work at 11:45. Benjamin missed his nap due to the house showings, so he went to bed early and since Matt is still at work, what was I supposed to do but whip up something yummy for him to come home to after what I imagine has been a stressful day. So, let the week (plus a day or so) of chocolate begin!

These little cupcakes are a new recipe I tried a few weeks ago that you can find here. I followed the cupcake recipe, but used 1/4 cup honey instead of 1/2 c agave and also used melted coconut oil instead of grapeseed oil. I love that these are a little lower in sugar than the typical cake and that they still taste yummy and chocolaty.

For the frosting, I melted 1/4 cup 60% cacao chocolate chips and beat them with 3 Tablespoons of butter. Then I added about 1/2 c whipping cream and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. They weren't chocolaty enough for me, so I also added 1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder, but I should have added that before the cream because I ended up over beating the cream and got a little more of a grainy look for the frosting than I was hoping for. But the flavor was delicious, so over whipped or not, it went on the cupcakes. Now I just need to wait for Matt to get home so we can eat one up. Mmmmm. Chocolate truly does make life feel happier.

Life in Limbo

2010-02-05T14:08:00.002-06:00

I sure haven't done a whole lot of blogging lately. It seems like every time I think about it, I can't figure out what to write. So I post a couple of pictures and put off anything else. It feels like we are busy all the time, and yet, we're really not. We're just in limbo. Several months ago, for many reasons, we felt like it was time to look at moving back to Indiana. We scurried around getting our house ready to sell and Matt got his CPA stuff finished up. Then he began the job search. I know that when I look back on this time, it won't seem long, but I have decided that there is nothing that builds faith like waiting. Especially when you don't know exactly what you are waiting for. We don't know from day to day if we are staying or going. I don't know when I wake up each morning if I will have complete strangers walking through my home that day deciding whether or not to buy it, so I clean every day. Our adoption process has been on hold for six months while we've waited to see what was going to happen with Matt's job and our move. And if we do move, we will have to start over on that with a new agency. Nothing feels permanent in our lives right now and some days it feels like we are just wishing this season away. And if I'm not wishing it away, I'm clinging tightly to all the things I'm familiar with here that I love, like our church and friends, our gym, the weather, and even the grocery stores I'm used to shopping at. But like always, my faithful God is using this time to teach me things. I'm learning so much about the Holy Spirit and my total need for His power on a minute by minute basis. This is not something new, but something I have neglected to see for many years as I've tried to "do" life on my own. I've started a Bible Study that has challenged me to have a God Awareness as I go through my day and last Sunday our pastor challenged us to focus on praise each and every day. And this week the Lord has truly given me joy in the midst of our craziness. And I know it's Him because I'm not naturally joyful in the middle of stress. Last week I told Matt that I felt like I was going insane. I had so much going on in my head that I could hardly remember silly little things and I just felt like I couldn't go on with this feeling of limbo. I wanted off the waiting train. This week, the Lord has met my need to be filled with joy in the middle of what in reality is trivial compared to so much of the suffering that is going on around me. And yet, no matter how trivial, He still is faithful. I love that!

We found out two days ago that Matt got a second interview for a job we are really hopeful for in IN in a little over a week and today, he got another interview for another job that will also be during his time up there. Praising the Lord and trusting for His provision of the right job for Matt!

I haven't done well in the picture department lately, but next week I am declaring a week long Valentine's celebration and will be serving something involving chocolate every day. Both my boys are major chocolate fans, so I'll be sure to get some pictures of at least the littlest one enjoying some of his yummies.

It's for Grils (Girls)!

2010-01-30T15:52:00.004-06:00

How does the saying go? "Monkey see monkey do?" Well, here's my little monkey attempting to imitate his mommy. Benjamin loves to watch me put on make-up and we have little conversations about what I'm doing and most of those sentences end with him asking to do it too. My response is always "no, it's only for girls." So, when I came upon him in the bathroom looking like this and asked him what he was doing, his response was "it's for grils (a.k.a. girls)." Just need to figure out a way to get that head knowledge to kick in and affect the actions. But for now, I just get to laugh, give some stern instruction, and take some really cute pictures.

The new use for mascara. Who knew???

Please admire the beautiful artwork on the toilet lid. Title: Mascara a la Toilette

Keeping Warm?

2010-01-29T17:29:00.003-06:00

It's been unusually cold here in Texas this January. It started off super cold, then teased us with some beautiful 70 degree days. Now it's back to pretty cold. We set our heat to comfortable and then got our electric bill, so I've been suffering at 66. Brrrr. I know for some that's not bad, but for this hothouse flower, it's cold. So, I have some warm fuzzy socks just for the occasion and Benjamin loves them. In fact, he loves them so much and thinks they are so warm, that he figures he doesn't need anything else. So, it's 66 degrees and he's running around in my green striped socks, warm as toast. Crazy Boy!

Happy Adoption Day!

2010-01-14T07:47:00.002-06:00

Two years ago today we went before a judge in Dallas, Texas and finalized Benjamin's adoption. I can hardly believe it's been that long already. We debated a little about whether to celebrate his placement date or his finalization date and while we will probably always make a big deal about both, we have decided that we will probably make a bigger deal about the finalization date since placement was just three days after his birthday. So tonight we are celebrating with some of his little friends, pepperoni pizza (his request) and cupcakes. He's super excited and woke up this morning telling me it was adoption party day. I don't think he fully grasps the concept of adoption yet, but he's definitely getting small parts of it. I love to talk to him about his story and telling it always reminds me what an amazing gift we have been given in being his parents. Happy Adoption Day Benjamin. I love you so much!!

ABC Time!

2010-01-05T20:58:00.003-06:00

Benjamin has started singing his ABC's this week and I love it! He's getting to be such a big boy! I tried to catch him on video, but he loves to be up close and personal and be able to see the screen, so I had to turn the screen around just to get him in front and not behind the camera. Thus the lack of centeredness. (is that a word?)

And here is the second attempt of the day to get him to sing his ABC's. Matt didn't know I had done a video this morning, so it was funny that we both thought of trying to capture it at different times on the same day. Benjamin decided that he had had enough of the boring videos by take two though and decided watching himself on the camera screen while he got silly was way more fun. I have to say I agree. I have laughed more watching it that I've laughed in a long time. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Christmas Day

2009-12-31T13:21:00.003-06:00

This year our Christmas was once again just the three of us and we had a pretty quiet day of relaxing as a family. We started off the day with Benjamin coming into bed with us and reading the Christmas story out of his Bible. Then we played with his "baby Jesus" set and cuddled. I loved that part because it's so rare that he actually cuddles. It didn't last long, so we got ready and headed downstairs to open presents. Benjamin was so excited when he saw all the presents. He'd been asking to go to Christmas for so long that I don't think he knew what to do with it finally being here. He went right to town on his stocking. Normally we don't let him have a lot of sugar because it makes him super hyper, and well, it's just not good for him, but we decided that for Christmas day we would indulge him. After a day of that, we may never do it again, but he sure enjoyed the candy from his stocking and had to have a little over everything as he opened it. Nothing like candy to make a breakfast of champions. When we finally got to the presents, Benjamin wanted to open them all. It was hard for him to understand that a few of them were actually not for him. He got blocks, trucks, books, a bike, and a few other things as well. He was certainly one happy kid! I love watching him throw his all into things like that. He just gets so excited!

One funny thing...I got a pair of slippers and some fun soft and cozy socks from Matt for Christmas. Benjamin helped daddy shop for me and was pretty excited about the socks. So when he got home from shopping he told me about them. So, I was pretty sure I was getting some socks. When I opened them, the first thing Benjamin said was "my socks." He loves anything soft, and really wanted my socks and slippers. I now have to hide them if I want to know where they are. Silly boy!

The first thing he said when he got to a new treat was "please open it."

yum!!! Gummies on a stick

Tons of trucks!

Showing off the new monster trucks he got from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson

Playing with it all after the presents were opened

Building with the blocks he got from his birth great grandma Dolores and birth grandma Laura

Little Dancer

2009-12-31T07:51:00.001-06:00

Christmas Goodies

2009-12-23T07:00:00.003-06:00

Christmas baking has been a tradition in my family since I can remember. I have fond memories of taking an extra week off school over the Christmas season just to have time to bake dozens of cookies and candies to give away to neighbors, friends, family, and of course to eat. Since getting married, I have never done quite the variety of baking that we used to do, but I usually do three or four different types of goodies. This year however, I decided I wasn't going to bake anything at all. I have pretty much gone without normal dessert type foods for the past several months and just didn't feel like coming up with low/no sugar cookies for Christmas. But then I went to a mom's night out for my mops group and saw the pretty cookies. The next day I talked to my sister on the phone and she was mixing up a batch of fun traditional Christmas goodies and I got the baking itch bad. So, I will not go so far as to say that my collection of goodies for this year was healthy, but they were (yes were) certainly delicious. Unfortunately I think I may have to make another batch of chocolate covered nut cookies to have on hand this weekend. So, for our goodies, we had chocolate covered coconut macaroons, almond shortbread cookies, and my all time favorite, chocolate covered nut cookies. I wasn't super thrilled with the macaroons. They were a bit to chewy for my taste. But the shortbread and the cookies are definitely going to become traditional Christmas cookies for this little family.

My little chocolate lover had to make sure that none of the chocolate dip got wasted

I found the recipe for the shortbread cookies online and I didn't tweak it much at all, so I won't share the recipe on here, but you can find it here. It's the sugar free spicy star recipe. I did use almond extract instead of allspice though and it was delicious.

But as for the nut cookies, please let me share this yummy and I must say addictive recipe with you.

Chocolate Covered Nut Cookies - adapted from Joy of Cooking's flourless nut balls

1 c. almonds, chopped super fine in a food processor

1/2 c pecans, also chopped super fine. You can do both nuts at the same time.

2 egg whites beaten well

1 1/2 t. butter, melted

2 T palm sugar, or you can just use regular brown sugar if you like.

Mix all ingredients together and stir over medium heat just until warm. Use a teaspoon to measure out the dough into balls. A level teaspoon is just the right size as you don't want them to be too big. Place the balls on a well greased cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes or until browned on the tops and sides. Cool completely. Makes about 40 cookies

For the dip:

Combine 1/2 T butter, 1/2 T coconut oil, 1 1/2 squares unsweetened bakers chocolate, and 1/2 to 1 T honey in a glass dish and melt it all together. We like a very dark chocolate flavor, so 1/2 T was enough for us, but taste it and see what you need. Dip one half of each cookie in your chocolate dip and place it on wax paper. Place cookie sheet in the freezer to harden the chocolate and the store cookies in a cool place. I love them straight out of the freezer. Happy Christmas baking!!

Do What I Say, Not What I Do...

2009-12-22T19:35:00.004-06:00

Benjamin at the table with his mouth stuffed with bread: "I want a banana. I want somethin' else. I want a banana. I want a banana. I want somethin' else."

Mommy, whose had a crazy stressful* afternoon and just wants some silence: "Don't talk with your mouth full."

Mommy starts laughing and nearly chokes on the huge mouthful of salad she put into her mouth right before she told Benjamin not to talk with his mouth full. Daddy realizes what Mommy has done and laughs too, causing Benjamin to think he's done something amazing, so he laughs hysterically.

*Crazy afternoon includes finding Benjamin, who I thought was playing so well outside, sitting on the back patio with the contents of my purse spread out around him. Pink lipstick smears covered the contents of my purse, mixed in with hand sanitizer and lotion. Lovely!

Benjamin Funnies

2009-12-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

Matt decided to give me one of my Christmas gifts early this year since he couldn't figure out how to explain having a gallon of apple cider in the fridge. He gave me a tin of mulling spices from Williams-Sonoma. Mmmmmm. So Matt and Benjamin were at the store getting the cider and Benjamin heard Matt asking where the cider was. For the rest of the day he requested apple spider. And last night when he finally got his first taste, he would not be corrected. He was drinking some good apple spider.

Time to Decorate the Tree

2009-12-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

This was the first year that Benjamin was old enough to help with the tree set-up and decoration. I love watching his excitement over things that are new to him. It was getting late by the time we got the tree put together and the lights on, so he ended up having to go to bed before it was all done. But when he came downstairs the next morning he was super excited about all the decorations.

He decided that the tree needed just a little something more and that a bright red shirt was just that something

Admiring the decor

Benjamin Funnies

2009-12-20T07:00:00.000-06:00

The other night we were brushing Benjamin's teeth and getting a little silly. I recently bought him some new toothbrushes that had suction cups on the bottom, so Matt decided to stick it to his forehead. Benjamin thought that was hilarious and wanted it on his forehead. Crazy boys!

To Grandmother's House We Go

2009-12-19T07:00:00.000-06:00

After spending a couple of days in Ohio, we packed up again and headed back to Indiana to stay with Matt's parents for a couple of days. Benjamin did really well with all the travel despite the crazy schedule and long car rides. He rode in the back of my in-law's vehicle and was insistent that we include him in all the conversation. If we were having a conversation that he didn't feel included in, he would yell up "do you hear me?" He also made sure to point out every McDonalds that he saw and let us know that he wanted french fries. Grandpa decided he wanted to get Benjamin some french fries on the way home, so we stopped and when we got inside McD's, Benjamin decided his craving had changed to hamburgers and ice cream. Silly kid. Once he got the french fries though, he was perfectly happy not to have the burgers and ice cream.

Grandma taught him the silent yell on the way home from Ohio. He did it for about a minute, then decided it didn't get the desired sound he wanted, so he went back to regular yelling.

Hanging out with Grandma

Trying on a silly hat found in Grandpa and Grandma's basement

My New Little Nieces

2009-12-18T07:00:00.003-06:00

While we were in Ohio visiting Matt's sister, we also got to meet my new nieces Emma and Addison as well as attend their baptism. They are such sweeties and have cheeks that I could just munch right up. It was so fun to finally meet them!

Worn out and sleeping peacefully

An Early Christmas for Benjamin

2009-12-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

For the past three weeks or so Benjamin has been asking to "go to Christmas." He still doesn't quite understand the concept of Christmas being a day of the year, but thinks it's a special place to go, kind of like the water park, or grandpa and grandma's house. Perhaps that's because his first gifts this year came while we were at a hotel in Ohio visiting Matt's sister Christa. Since we were away at a hotel and kind of "went" to his presents, perhaps he's a little confused. But boy did she pick some good stuff! He is in love with anything that moves on wheels, tracks, or in the air, so a garage with ramps and lifts and cars was just his thing. He's spent many hours playing with them since we got home. Thanks Christa!

Water Fun!

2009-12-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

While we were gone for Thanksgiving, we went to Ohio to see Matt's sister Christa and meet her twin girls who were born over the summer. We stayed in a great hotel that had a mini water park in their pool area. Benjamin loved it!!

Checking out the big slide!

Giving the big slide a try and loving it!

Bowling Fun

2009-12-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

What should one do when the belly is full of turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and pie? Why, go bowling of course!!! Well, at least, this is what the majority of us Anderson (Davis and Agapie) kids did on Thanksgiving night. We loaded up in the big red van and headed to a nearly empty bowling alley and had so much fun!

Believe it or not, Benjamin was actually thrilled to get to go
Look at all those balls!

A little bored, poor guy!

A Family Thanksgiving

2009-12-14T07:00:00.001-06:00

What a blessing it was to be home for Thanksgiving this year and to have my sister and her husband and their son, as well as my grandma there as well. I've always kind of taken for granted having all of my family together around some holiday, but I think as we all sat around the table together, it hit me that my siblings are getting older and it won't be many years before some of them may be married or have jobs that take them to other parts of the country, so I was reminded to be thankful for this year of having us all together.

Pretty happy about the pie!

You're supposed to eat pie with a fork???

What Else Could He Want?

2009-12-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

I believe this is Benjamin's favorite part about Grandpa and Grandma Anderson's house. He and my brother John have such a good time with all the cars.

More Stephen

2009-12-12T07:00:00.002-06:00

Just can't get enough of this little guy!

Family Additions Take Center Stage

2009-12-11T15:34:00.002-06:00

Two years ago when we went home for Christmas, Benjamin was in just about every picture. He was the newest and the littlest, and, well, the cutest. This year his position as youngest was usurped by my sweet little nephew Stephen. Benjamin didn't seem to mind at all and loves his little cousin. I just think Stephen is cute enough to eat right up!

Love this face!

The best family picture we've had in years!

Benjamin loving on "his Stephen"

Benjamin Funnies

2009-12-03T11:46:00.002-06:00

---Last night I was leaving Bible Study with Benjamin and some of our friends were headed out too. Now as we all know, getting kids out to the car is not always easy, so her kids were marching to keep focused and she was saying "march, march, march." Benjamin heard her from across the parking lot and all the way to the car he said "heart, heart, heart."

---Yesterday I got our the little nativity set I got for Benjamin to be able to play with. We were playing and I was talking about the kings coming to visit Jesus. He went and got his monster truck and put the king on top to drive it to the set. Who needs a camel?

Funny Findings

2009-11-16T10:39:00.002-06:00

I walked into my room this morning to find this

Right before I walked in, I heard Benjamin saying "Sweet Dreams" to his teddy bears. And, as we all know, you cannot have sweet dreams without a sippy cup of water by your side.

Thanksgiving is on its Way!

2009-11-12T15:12:00.002-06:00

I always know that fall is officially underway when I start craving foods made with pumpkin. And in particular, sweet baked goods. Usually I reserve pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I've spent the last couple of months coming up with dessert recipes that are either sugar free or very low in sugar, so pumpkin pie made it on the list of experiments. This week we are enjoying take two of my pumpkin pie experimentation and I must say, it is delicious. Who says you can't have your cake (er pie) and eat it too? This pie has 1/3 - 3/4 less sugar than traditional pie recipes and is made with a pecan crust, which lowers the carb count even more. Here's to guilt-free dessert consumption for Thanksgiving! OK, maybe I got a little carried away, but I'm just excited!

Pumpkin Pie with a Pecan Crust

Crust
1 c pecans
1 1/2 T butter, melted

Filling
2 c pumpkin puree
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t maple flavoring
1 t vanilla
1/4 c sweetener of choice - I used palm sugar, but you could use Sucanat or regular sugar
10-15 drops liquid Stevia

For the crust, chop pecans in a food chopper until finely ground, almost to a cornmeal type consistency. Add melted butter and press into bottom of pie dish. Crust will come a little way, but not all the way up the sides of the dish. Bake at 425 until set and just beginning to brown. Remove and set aside.

For the filling, combine pumpkin, eggs, and milk and beat well. Add remaining ingredients. Pour filling into prepared crust and bake 15 minutes at 425. Lower the temperature to 35o and bake an additional 45 minutes or until pie is set. If desired, top with unsweetened whipped cream, or sweeten your cream with a drop or two of Stevia.

Fall Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-06T08:43:00.004-06:00

I love fall and everything pumpkin, so visiting a couple of pumpkin patches was definitely on my list of fun things to do. Matt had the afternoon off after taking his CPA test, so we enjoyed some fun time at a local church's pumpkin patch. Then the following week my MOPS group went to another church pumpkin patch and despite some very wet ground, Benjamin got to enjoy running around, picking out a pumpkin, listening to a story, and getting his hand painted.

He got an airplane painted on his hand
This is such a picture of Benjamin - up close and in the middle of things during story time.

One of the few times he was still enough to get a picture

One of my favorite family pics

Chillin' with the pumpkins

Having trouble just picking one pumpkin

One of my friends was there with her two boys and her youngest was sitting posing for her to take a picture when Benjamin plopped right down in front of him to pose for his picture to be taken too. Silly kid!

A Weekend at a Ranch

2009-11-06T08:30:00.003-06:00

All I have to say about this post is, better late than never. This fall is flying by and I can't believe it's been a month and a half since we took a weekend away with our friends Brian and Katie and their son Cale. We went to the Flying L Ranch and enjoyed some good time hanging out with our friends and watching the boys play. There was a small water park with a lazy river and a couple of slides and Benjamin loved it. This momma is a wimp when it comes to cold and the water was COLD, so I was the official photographer. We enjoyed some good food, a tractor ride around the ranch, mini golf, and s'mores by a campfire. All in all, a very fun weekend!

wagon ride behind the tractor
Benjamin and Cale hanging out on the mini golf course

Daddy and Benjamin playing in the water

Fun on the water slide

Don't forget the chocolate!

One Silly Mommy and a Silly Little Boy

2009-10-20T07:47:00.001-05:00

Benjamin Funnies

2009-10-18T16:58:00.002-05:00

This morning before church I was upstairs getting ready and Benjamin was downstairs eating breakfast and calling up "Sweetie, come on!" Sometimes I'm a bit slow getting ready on Sunday mornings and I guess he thought he'd hurry me along. Matt's reply to him: "I'll be saying that in about 45 minutes." For the record, I was ready less than 30 minutes later.

Then, Benjamin was being silly in his booster seat this afternoon and I said "Benjamin, you are a goof ball." He continued being silly for a minute or two before replying with "Mommy a goof off." I get so little respect in my house. ;-)

We are Still Here

2009-10-15T12:38:00.005-05:00

Well I have certainly not been great at keeping up with this blog lately. Life has been a bit crazy around here with me doing some major decluttering and cleaning and of course, chasing the little man, and Matt is only 5 days away from his last section of the CPA exam. We are just a little EXCITED!!!

Along with being a bad blogger, I have also been a pretty bad photographer. Thus, the two pictures below are the only ones I have taken in almost a month. Benjamin doesn't stay in one place for long these days and most of his entertainment is vocal. He is such a talker and continues to make me laugh every day.

We are currently down to one car (this seems to happen once every couple of months lately), so Benjamin and I have been ~~stranded at~~ blessed to be at home the past couple of days. I, being the lover of exercise that I am, was most upset about missing the gym, so I decided Benjamin and I would work out together in the living room. It worked for about two minutes. He loves it when I turn music on and we dance, but when he discovered that my plan included him doing his own thing while I did mine, he wasn't thrilled. So I did a few crunches and squats and called it a day. Today I was determined to fit something in. I decided a walk/run was in order for the early morning before it got hot (high today is 92, and yes it's October 15th), but after about 1/2 mile with the bright and beautiful sunshine in my eyes and my sunglasses in my car that was towed to the repair shop this morning, my eyes hurt from squinting and I came inside to do Pilates. Benjamin, who loves getting out and running errands, heard me say Pilates and his face lit up. He ran to the door and said "Hobby Lobby!" He was a little bummed that we weren't going anywhere, but laid on the floor beside me while I exercised and said "I do Hobby Lobby." I got a double ab workout between the Pilates and the laughter.

I'll try to be better about posting, but we plan on having some major family time after Matt takes the last section of the CPA, so no promises. I do have some fun pictures of our family trip to a ranch/resort we went to with friends about a month ago and I will try to get those up in the next couple of days.

I'm crazy about this kid!!!

Benjamin Funnies

2009-09-26T12:56:00.002-05:00

I went to Home Depot today with Benjamin and when we walked in, they had all their Christmas decorations out. As a side note, that's just a bit early don't ya think? Anyway, Benjamin got all excited and called out "Noah, Noah!" He has not yet learned who Santa is and well, I didn't have the heart to correct him. So, Noah it is for now.

Our Ice Cream Boy

2009-09-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I experimented with a mint ice cream recipe I found and used a new sugar substitute I recently found called Just Like Sugar. It was my attempt to create my favorite dessert without it being quite so bad for us. The ice cream was pretty good, although not amazing, but Benjamin LOVED it! So much in fact that he spread it all over himself and decided he could get more in his mouth if he used his hands. Mmmmmm. Yummyness!!!

Family Movie Night

2009-09-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

For the past couple of Sunday night family movie nights, we have watched Finding Nemo with Benjamin. He loves it! He also loves eating popcorn while watching and apparently loves to wear his popcorn bowl as a hat.

A Precious Naptime Moment

2009-09-23T13:45:00.004-05:00

I was laying in Benjamin's bed this afternoon before his nap and we were just talking about this and that. Then he kept saying "go supper." I kept repeating it after him and he kept looking at me like "what are you talking about?" We always say dinner rather than supper, so I really couldn't figure him out, but he kept on repeating it. Finally he said, "go supper, sheep." I said "Oh, the shepherd takes care of the sheep?" He said, "yeah, good shepherd, sheep, ummmm, MOPS, ummmm, cookies, ummmm, Good Shepherd." I asked him if he learned that God is our shepherd when he was at MOPS yesterday and he said yeah. Amazing. Tears came into my eyes as I realized that he is truly beginning to remember and comprehend what he learns about the Lord. So precious! I'm so thankful for a church where what we are teaching him at home is being reinforced.

Oh yes, and he loves the cookies at MOPS too!

Labor Day Weekend Part 2

2009-09-21T15:18:00.006-05:00

Can we just say that I'm a bit behind on the blog thing? It's been a very busy month both with Benjamin's daily activeness and with Matt in the last month of studying for CPA. Needless to say, we are more than ready for the test to be over and for things to slow down a bit at least for a while.

So, two and a half weeks ago, we decided to make a day trip to the beach. Well, more like an afternoon trip. We left after church and returned home around 11 pm. It was a crazy tiring day, but we couldn't have asked for better weather. Last year we went on Labor Day and there was a hurricane on it's way, which made for super hot air and very choppy waves. The beach was also pretty dirty and we came home covered in tar. This year though, the beach was perfect! The air was warm, but not too hot, the water was oh so comfortably warm without too many floaty things that usually make me squeamish about swimming, and the sand was relatively clean and tar free. And, the waves were just right for Benjamin to play in. Also in contrast to last year, Benjamin LOVED the ocean and called it a waterpark. I told him it was God's waterpark. Last year he would not go near it and hated even the feel of the sand against his feet. This year, he was totally fearless, which was so much fun to watch, and of course meant we had to keep our eagle eyes on him at all times. Overall, it was a great trip and I got to do one of my very favorite things and watch the sunset while listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the sand.

Family Shot
Look at that sunscreen hair!

first steps into the water

He loved to jump and then land bottom first in the middle of a wave

Playing with Daddy in the water

Benjamin Funnies

2009-09-15T07:48:00.004-05:00

Last week Benjamin and I had some dried figs for a snack and he loved them and said "mmmm, pigs." I figured he was just mispronouncing them and didn't really think they were pigs. Yesterday I got them out again and he said "oinks, please oinks." Guess he really did think they were pigs. Silly boy!

Labor Day Weekend Part 1

2009-09-11T19:56:00.006-05:00

I love long weekends. Sometime they seem even more relaxing than having a week of vacation because we rarely plan to do anything big. We did go to the beach this year for one day, but other than that, we relaxed and enjoyed some good family time.

Helping Daddy make pancakes
Getting a little too excited about eating the pancakes and deciding to see if flour tastes good. It does not!

OK, I know I look like a crazy woman in this picture, and yes, I'm still in my PJ's, but Benjamin loves it when I dance with him and I couldn't not post it just because I was embarrassed about myself.