Our Everyday Blessings

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Helping Daddy

Today we started planting some vines in our backyard. The kids as usual were eager to help.

It is pretty hot out there today so Sadie and I pretty quickly retired to the shade where she became our water girl.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

A Weekend Project

No this wasn't all completed in a weekend, but it's fun to remember how far our house has come in the 3 years we've lived here.

This is what the kitchen looked like when we moved into the house in February of 2009.

This is what my kitchen looked like in July of 2009, 3 months before Sadie's arrival. I might have been a little bit scared. For over a month all of our cooking was done on the BBQ, prepared on our plastic camping table.

Middle of September I was thrilled to have a fully functioning kitchen again and a whole month before Sadie was born. Yay!!!

And this weekend Brandon the finishing touch on with our new tile backsplash.

Don't I have a handy hubby!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

It's A ....

BOY!!!!

22 weeks

I must admit we were a bit surprised. I didn't really make any guesses with the first 2 but this time I really thought it was going to be a girl based on my pregnancy so far. I guess that just goes to show what I know. We are thrilled!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Siblings

Do you remember these days? The fighting, and tattling, and life never being fair. I'm reminded of it every day as I watch these two little guys go at it. They both want to be held, but Mommy's arms aren't always strong enough for two. They both want to be first but only one can. They can't stand to be away from each other because that's just no fun, yet when they're together they pester each other relentlessly. Some days this age is just plain tiring.

Well this past month, when we were up in Oregon I was reminded of how quickly this stage passes. How the ones who were your greatest rival soon become your best friends. We had one particular moment this trip where we found the six of us "kids" together in my moms car driving to Home Depot. We laughed about how funny it was that Amy was in the back while our two "little" brothers drove us, we laughed as Robert tried to order 6 drinks at the Dutch Brother's drive thru, and for a second I quietly observed and wished that I could freeze that moment in time. It was like we almost forgot that we were moms, and wives, and husbands, and business partners, and we were just kids again. It was a rare moment of just us 6 being together again. I treasure these moments and have been reminding myself these past few weeks, that when my own kiddos seem to be an especially large handful, that this is what they have to look forward to. I think that we'd all agree that we'd never have had it any other way and I hope that someday my kids can look back and say the same. Being a part of a big family is the best!

Time sure does fly.....

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Maybe We Had Too Much Fun!

As I started working on the first of my Oregon posts, I quickly discovered that I'd taken way too many pictures. So here are a few more of the fun things we did.

Baking Cookies with Grandma

Notice the cute apron that Grandma and I made Sadie.

Rolling the dough.

Thanks for the Cars cookie cutters Courtney!

Frosting the cookies.

Building a Patio for Grandma

Brandon spent a lot of time during our 2nd week in Oregon building a patio for my Mom's new modular home.

When Caleb wasn't helping he was hanging out with the "supervisor" aka Grandpa.

Working hard, even on vacation. What a good guy!

Hershey

Other than a minor mishap with the lagoon I think Hershey adapted to farm life well. When Brandon was working or out shooting she hung out with him and when he wasn't around she ran with the other dogs. Not a bad life.

The 4th of July!