Long Over Due

I have neglected updating our life events for three months.  Amongst traveling over the holidays for a long stay back in Iowa and then returning to WA only to start a photography class the next day.  During that time I added in a lot of other activities.  My husband will tell you that I often put too much on my plate.  I won't complain, because it is true that most stress is self-induced.  I am guilty as charged.  However, I have been making a conscious effort to clear my plate and I am finally making some progress.  At least I think.  It seems that just when I get to the bottom of my list or I discard tasks from the list, something takes its place.  That's life though.  There's always something to keep us moving forward.

I thoroughly enjoyed my photography classes and I hope to take more down the road.  For now I will take a break, mostly because my boys think I neglect them by leaving them for one evening a week, and secondly, I need to somewhat wrap my head around all the knowledge that I was exposed to.  I hope over the course of the blog post explosion here you will see an improvement in my skills, or maybe at least room for improvement.

I'm dabbling in digital scrapbooking to help me save time.  I love the traditional paper pages with all the embellishments, but there's not enough time to do it all that way.  I'm sharing a few of my first pages so this massive blog update can be sped up a bit.  Enjoy.

A Fireman and A Chef

Our sons may have found their future calling.  Sam still has not lost his passion for firemen, fire stations, and fire trucks.  It occupies his mind and much of our conversations these days.  Zeke loves to play in his kitchen and has confiscated my oven mitts.  They are so much fun to role play with when they are in the midst of their dramatic play.

I love their creative minds and when I look into these big bright eyes nothing else in the world matters.

Our Zekaroo

This little boy is growing so fast.  He's become a little boy, and a very independent one at that.  He doesn't miss a beat.  Zeke started walking right after Christmas and has stopped.  He's now chasing after his big brother and sometimes antagonizing him, too.  He loves to help mom in the kitchen, get his hands dirty in paint, and is ever curious.  This boy is busy, busy, busy.  He loves trying new things, especially mommy's homemade treats!  He's a chocoholic for sure.  I never craved chocolate until I was pregnant with him, so we now share this love.  If I am at home, you don't have to look far behind me to find Zeke.  He's my shadow.

He's using more and more words and understands everything we ask.  Plus, the sign language he uses makes communicating with this little guy so much easier.  Quiet is not in his description.  This boy jabbers all day long.  Recently he had to attend a meeting with me and was talking loudly all through the meeting.  As hard as I tried to coax him to quiet down or distract him, the louder he became.  Someone commented on how funny he is that he just jabbers and jabbers.  My response was "He's really fun to take to church!"  As loud as he gets he stills sits through mass with us and, even though I'm sure we've got some annoyed looks, I like to think he's just praising Jesus when he gets loud in church.  Even if the sound coming out of him sounds like a lion roaring! 

Loving our chocolate-avocado mousse!

No he no longer has a bottle, he just found one to play with.  Here Zeke is talking to himself in the window.

Walking like crazy

He's very helpful...even with cleaning tasks

My Sweeties

I love the sugar and snuggles I get from these two boys daily.  They melt my heart!

Photog Class

Here's a few photos that were the result of my photography class.  I learned a lot in six nights of class and I am still trying to grasp it all.  It's a work in progress.  But, I have two little men to capture every day.

I caught a few buds...this means spring is coming!

Chasing after his big brother....this boy slows down for nothing.

Enough Snow!

Sam and I were hoping that we would get some snow while we were in Iowa.  Experiencing that rush of speed as you descend the snow covered hills is childhood memory that I remember clearly.  When I think about it I can feel the cold on my cheek, smell the brisk air, and hear the calm stillness of winter.  Sharing this with Sam was something I was very much looking forward to doing when we were on our visit back in the Midwest.  We were blessed with the perfect snowfall and temperatures that were cold, but no too cold.

Because I'm 4 Now

Sam turned 4 and every time asked him "How he got so big or how he can do that" the response is "Because I'm 4 now!"  This boys personality has run wild this past year.  He has a dramatic side that keeps us laughing.  Picking up a good one liner is his thing.  Often he'll throw it into a conversation in the right place, but sometimes not.  He thinks he is hilarious and I hope he never loses that sense of humor.  Most days you will find him in the role of a cowboy, police officer, pirate, or, most often, a fireman, in our house.  It's not unusual to get the response "Well, I actually have a call (emergency) I have to go to" when asked to do something.  Never under estimate the power of a positive role model.  In these instances, the fireman's mama is quick to explain that fireman have to work together and that the real fireman at the fire station also have to do chores every day.

This kids legs just keep getting longer and his memory expands by the minute.  I try to take mental snapshots to remember him at this age.  This is a time where he has an incredible vocabulary, great sense of wonder, but is blessed with an innocence I hope he doesn't start to lose for a long, long time.  He's sweet and tender, with a little spice added in once in a while.  He is already talking about what he's going to do when he turns 5...I just tell him I don't want to talk about that because I'm not ready for the reality of him being a whole hand worth of years yet.

His school pictures for preschool this year.  I chose to take them myself and I got a few goofy ones because, well, that's Sam.

The following pictures were taken by a mom of one of Sam's classmates, she definitely captured his personality and great facial expressions.

And here's our big 4 year old celebrating his special day.  While we were back in Iowa over Christmas Sam celebrated his birthday with two parties, one on each side of the family.  He wanted an "Orange Party", so everyone wore orange and we ate lots of orange food.  And, of course, the fireman made an appearance, too.

His 4 year old photo shots

Dancing in the sunshine

Brothers watching their daddy ride the bucks out of a horse.

Fast Christmas Re-cap

We were blessed to be able to travel back to Iowa to share Christmas with both sides of our family.  Santa came to our house in Washington while we were gone, so the boys waited very patiently to be home to open their presents.  Their giant bean bags were by far a favorite gift that have created hours of wrestling mats,  comfy seats for movie viewing and snuggling, and mountainous terrain to explore with matchbox cars.

What we cherished most was time with our family and celebrating Jesus' birth together.  There's no greater gift.  Live so far from family, makes the blessing of time together all the greater.

Turkey Day In Review

We made a feast for Thanksgiving this year.  Hans was in charge of the turkey and I took on the ham.  We made all the other traditional sides and literally feasted on this food for days and days.  It was wonderful to not have to cook anything for almost a week.  Sam made special turkey hand place mats for everyone to make our table festive.  Turkey day was also the day the oven mitts started appearing not only in our kitchen, but on Zeke's hands.  A fixation that continues.  This meal filled our bellies and the time together filled our love tanks.