Random updates

It is so sad that I have not posted for so long. I don't know where the time goes. But I do need to catch up now that we have some sort of order to our lives again. We have been living in our house for six weeks and it is AMAZING. We love everything about it. The boys love having space to play and run, and I just love having space. Everywhere.

Mitchell and Maxwell are two peas in a pod these days. They are still sharing a room here...not because they have to, but because they want to. We also want to foster a close brother relationship, and sharing a room seems like a good way to do that. The basement is all theirs (except for the laundry room and my studio). It's officially the "kid-zone." Which means that the upstairs is all ours. Of course, we let them up here to eat. Ha ha. Really we spend a lot of time in all parts of the house, but the boys would say the toy room is there favorite. I can't decide between the kitchen or the attached garage. Or the extra bathroom. Or the fireplace. I guess I love it all. God is SO amazing. He has blessed us with this home and we just pray that we can use it for his glory every day!

I do have a studio in this house. I can just leave it set up all of the time and close the door when I'm not using it. It's pretty nice. I have lots of pictures of the boys, but right now I'll just post a few. They are such good sports when it comes to letting me practice my photography on them.

Lay 'em down

Big Changes

I have not posted pictures of Mitchell's birthday...for many reasons! It's CRAZY around here. We have been working for what seems like most of the summer on the rental house and doing all kinds of projects getting it ready to sell. We put it on the market September 9 and it sold on September 10. There were a few things that Brian had to fix after the inspection, but nothing too major.

Then, on October 6, we found a house, fell in love and bought it. Which meant that we had to kick it into high gear to get our house ready for the market. We had it on the market by Friday, October 9 at 5:00 p.m. It sold on Tuesday October 13. Three days on the market...WHEW! It was inspected by Friday October 16 (the same day we closed on our rental house) and only a very minor repair was needed ($5.00 and some of Brian's time).

In the mean time, I did candid shots at a friend's wedding, had about 20 photo sessions and I started babysitting once in a while to help a friend out, Brian and my brother and dad and then Brian and his Dad re-roofed this house. We moved tons of things into storage at a friend's house, cleaned like crazy and our dear family and friends came and helped us fill nail holes, paint, clean and move stuff so that our house would be ready to show. I can't express how much I appreciate everything that everyone has done to help us. The poor boys have gotten passed around from place to place during this, but again, we're so thankful to friends and family who helped us out with the boys so that we could get the house ready.

I know this is a mumble-jumble of words, but that's about how I feel right now. Everything seems crazy and out of control, but yet, by the way that everything has worked out, I know that GOD is in control of everything. He has led us this whole way and I have no doubt that he will remain faithful through the journey. I'm so excited to see what he has in store for us with this house He led us to! I'm sure that it will be an amazing journey because everything in our lives up to this point has been an amazing journey with the fingerprints of GOD all over everything.

We move into our new house on November 6...only 2 weeks away! And we close on this house on November 12 or 13, I can't remember which.

So, the blog is behind, and I can't wait for normalcy to return to our lives and be able to post regularly again. It just seems that time slips away and another day comes and goes and pretty soon a month is gone. I can't wait to see what surprises the next month holds.

Mitchell' sBirthday

We had a GREAT time celebrating Mitchell's birthday this year. I cannot believe that little guy is 4 years old. 5 years ago right now we still both believed we probably wouldn't have any children of our own. And now we have 2! God is good.

Mitchell really had a birthday week and I think he loved it all. He was getting tired by the end, and said, "Okay, I think I'm done celebrating my birthday!" On Thursday, he got to bring treats to our Bible School class that we go to. He chose to bring donuts and juice boxes. He got cards from the kids and they sang "Happy Birthday!"

We baked a cake that afternoon-chocolate-with homemade frosting. Mitchell decorated it with an ENTIRE bottle of sprinkles. He got to bring that to pre-school on Friday and share it with his class. For his special day, he got to be the line leader and also got a treat and a gift out of the birthday box at school. They kids must have liked the cake because the pan was nearly empty when he brought it home!

Saturday was his actual birthday, and he started the day off by eating cake for breakfast (a tradition that I grew up with) and then opening presents. We spent the morning playing with all of his presents and helping daddy outside. We met uncle Bubba and Aunt Mandie for lunch at Culver's. Mitchell's choice. We all got to have yummy custard for desert. Mitchell's was free because it was his birthday, Max's was free with a coupon from his kid's meal, and we got another free one because we had a 5" long french fry! On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to Brian and Mandie's new place (about an hour away) for dinner (or supper, whatever you prefer) at Red Robin. Mitchell got ANOTHER free dessert and singing from the wait staff.

Sunday we had his party at the park with all of our friends. It was cold and windy, but we still enjoyed the 2 more cakes that I baked and good fellowship. By Sunday night, the boys were wiped out and I believe they were in bed by 7:15!

Max wants to keep celebrating, because he keeps saying, "Happy Birthday, Mitchell??" And we have to tell him that the birthday celebration is over for right now. Then he says, "Happy Birthday, Max??" And again we have to be the bearer's of bad news and tell him that it's not his turn yet. Birthdays really are so much fun in this house!

I have pictures to post, but right now I don't know where they are. They will be coming when I locate them.

We have new paint on our house! I can't find a "before" picture right now, but as my mom says, "some things are better if you don't remember what they looked like before!" For a quick overview, it was a dull gray and peeling horribly. It did NOT look nice.

We have wonderful neighbors that own a house painting business called Home Revolution. It was pretty fun to have them working over here and we were able to go back and forth to each other's houses during the process. We already had purple trim, and the color we chose to go with it is "dill". They also stained the deck a deep coffee brown and it looks amazing! Now we have to get the shingles done, and the front deck fixed up a bit.



This is the boys and Brian right after he got back from Amsterdam. They were SOOOO happy to see him, as was I! They boys are wearing "I love Holland" cow t-shirts and matching cow wooden-shoe slippers. So far they have to wear their slippers everywhere, especially to bed when they sleep.

All three boys have been sleeping since 8:30...and I have been working on pictures and doing laundry. I tried to touch up paint, but I got the wrong color of paint to touch up with and so I'm just trying to keep busy as to not feel overwhelmed!

Things and Stuff

Brian is home from Amsterdam. Praise God! I won't say it's not an adjustment, but we are glad to have him back. He is very tired, and trying to adjust back to Central Standard Time, but hopefully after this weekend, he'll be back on track. We have had a busy couple of weeks again...and I guess it's our own doing. Somehow we want to stay less busy, but we get more and more busy!

Oh! Here's the really good news! We sold our rental house. Yep, one day on the market and only $1000 less than the asking price. Brian was in Amsterdam and I was driving down the interstate when we got the offer. I counter-offered and they accepted...I had to pull over as I was crying with thanksgiving to God. ONE DAY! Amazing. I will post some pictures...right now!

WHOOOO HOOOO!


I think it turned out pretty cute. A special thanks to our families, especially Brian and Mandie. There is NO WAY we could have turned this house around without your help. We appreciate it more than we even have words to tell you.

Along with the good...comes the bad

Today has been a day from the dark parts of Hades. Well, that's harsh and there have been a lot of good things, but I'm pretty sure that I will still have tears falling from my face as I fall into bed, from pure exhaustion and a good dose of inadequacy.

Let's see...where to start. We just got back from a long weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house yesterday at around 3:30. The boys were already suffering from severe lack of sleep at this point. We went over to the rental house to finish up a few things before we listed it this morning. Of course it took longer than we thought, and by the time we got home, it was all could do to get the kids fed and in bed before they arrived in melt-down city. Then, once they were in bed and Brian got home (he stayed later to get it all finished up over there) we had to unpack, wash and re-pack for his trip to Amsterdam (which he left for today). We came up short on socks and shirts and a few other things, so I put it on the list of things to do today.

This morning dawned and I tried to get the boys moving to get to the store to get things for Brian before he left. Mitchell was having stomach pain because he CANNOT go to the bathroom when we go to other people's houses. Max decided to be "un" potty trained today (he's been trained for a couple of weeks) and had an accident right before we were finally heading out the door. Finally we made it to the store, only to find that they were re-modeling it and I couldn't find a dang thing that I needed. We got home around noon, and whaddya know the painters show up. I'm trying to get Brian's last minute things packed, he arrived home from work and was discussing things with the painters, the boys were hungry and tired....AHHHH!

Fast forward a couple of hours. We dropped Brian off at the airport with lots of tears. The boys were NOT happy that he was leaving, but I was crying the most. I was totally overwhelmed and he was leaving for the other side of the world. We had to stop at Sam's Club because we were out of all kinds of groceries, so we get home with 20 pounds of various meats when my neighbor and her three boys show up. So far, unfolded laundry has stacked up, raw meat is on the counter, various groceries are littering the kitchen and there is now FIVE boys running around throwing toys everywhere.

I finally got supper made, cut the boys' hair-because of course tomorrow is picture day at school- and get them in bed only to have an undeniable urge to check on them about 1/2 an hour later. I walk into the room into wall of vomit odor. Mitchell had woken up from a deep sleep puking all over. This woke Max up who informed me that he had dirty pants. All the while he's running around the room saying, "Mitchell pook (puke)". To spare details, I have changed 3 sets of sheets, given two baths, scrubbed the carpet, done 2 loads of laundry and just finished cleaning up a mess from the OTHER end of Mitchell's body. I feel terrible for the poor little boy. I am sheerly exhausted and can't even imagine how I will begin to pick up our house.

So...for any of you that ever think I sugar-coat these entries...fear not! Real life happens here too!

Pre-school

Mitchell and his stuffed animal that he brought along, and Max with his blankie

"I'm all ready for school, Mom."

When we picked him up after school, he came running to me and almost knocked me over with a huge hug! It was great. He's holding the treat Max picked out for him while we were out and about.

New things

It's shaping up to be a busy week at our house. Today I took Mitchell to pre-school for the first day and I'll be the first to tell you that I did NOT like it. I didn't want to take him, or drop him off or leave him there. He, however, LOVED it and when he was done he couldn't talk fast enough to tell me everything that had happened. It was so cute to see him get in line with his class. He had his spikey mohawk, and a huge red back pack on his back. His teacher asked them all to bring a favorite stuffed animal to share with the class (BRILLIANT) so he had a giant teddy bear under his arm. I cried all the way out to the van and for about 15 minutes after I dropped him off. However, I had a great time hanging out with Max. It's not something we usually get to do. We went shopping for a new comforter for him, and then we came home and he played and chatted with me while I was cleaning.

Also, earlier this week, we found some bunk beds on craigslist for a great deal. Matresses included. We used our hard-earned garage sale money to buy them for the boys. OH MY GOODNESS...I have never seen two little boys so excited in all of my life. It was the best night I could imagine. We took them home and immediately set them up. We made a quick run to KMART to get some sheets (Thomas sheets, of course) and matress pads. They slept in them that night. We put away Max's crib-which we converted into a toddler bed over a year ago, but it still had the essence of a crib. I was more emotional about that than I thought I would be as well. Ugggghhh...this growing up stuff is tough.

And finally, we are done with diapers this week. Max pretty much finished potty training a couple of days ago and now will ONLY wear his elmo underwear. So it's a good thing...and it's sad at the same time. No more crib, no more diapers, the paci's been gone for a while and now Mitchell is in pre-school. I officially have no more babies in the house. All of this hit me much harder than I was expecting, and at the same time I feel so proud of those boys. Go figure!