Kaley-What I Don't Want To Forget

There are so many things that my kids do that I want to make sure I remember. Of course, everything Kaley does is cute but she isn't doing a whole lot since she is only five months old.
-Braedon runs around like a wild man pretty much all day every day. She still hasn't quite gotten used to it and if she has her back to him, as he runs in the room yelling, I can see her little hands shoot straight out to her sides when her startle reflex kicks in and I go over to assure her that everything is ok and her eyes are as big as saucers. I so wish I knew what they were thinking because I would LOVE to know what goes through her mind when this happens.
-Our preschool coordinator at church told me today that she thinks Kaley is a sympathy crier because Kaley was in the swing just fine until another baby started crying then she started crying for seemingly no reason.
-She does seem to love all of the attention that her big brother gives her. She is completely content as long as he is playing with her but if he gets up to go do something else she starts crying. She is also constantly watching him in wonder and amazement.
-She loves her daddy...he just has to be within eyesight and she locks in on him and starts smiling just waiting for him to look at her. When he looks at her she lights up even more. It is the most adorable thing in the world.
-She is great about sleeping but has a problem going to sleep sometimes. Especially when she is getting ready to go to sleep for the night. She will fight and fight and fight screaming like I have never even heard before then suddenly she just falls asleep. She will usually sleep 8-9 hours and wake up happy as she can be.
Of course, there will much more cuteness to write about in the future...I just wanted to get these things down.

Braedon-What I Don't Want To Forget

There are so many things that my kids do that I think I will remember forever but as time goes by some of those memories start to slip. So, I am very glad that I started this blog and will take the advice of my good friend, Jamie, and blog about cute things my kids are doing so I won't forget.
-We have started singing a lot of kids songs. He can't really sing yet but he tries and looks for places to jump in or finish the song. For example, when we sing "Jesus Loves Me", he does the hand motions and says "so" really enthusiastically at the very end of the song when it goes "the bible tells me so".
-We sing "If your happy and you know it" and he will clap, stomp his feet, and say "Amen" at the appropriate times. We then changed the words and sang "If you are Braedon and you know it say "I'm cute" and he says "I'm cute".
-When he knows his picture is being taken he has no problem hamming it up and saying "cheese". He adds this cheese arm thing where he sticks his arm out in front of him like he is rallying someone one and yells "cheese" So, we have some really cute pictures but his arm is sticking up in the air.
-Related to the previous thing...daddy taught him how to say "Rocky, Rocky" and stick his arm in the air like he is cheering him on. (on a side note: every time Rocky is on cable we HAVE to watch it and it is so exciting just like we haven't really seen it 500 times).
-He has grasped the concept that things have several different names. For example, Kaley is sissy, sister, sweet girl, and Kaley. So, he will point to her and say all of those things looking to me for confirmation that they are all correct. Same thing goes for our cat, he points to Jax and says kitty, cat, Jax.
-The way he says "oh no" is really cute like when he knocks over his block tower or drops something.
-He says "I love you" but it comes out more like "I Lolu".
-He loves to love on his baby sister. He will come up to her and give her a hug and kiss and say, "Hi Sissy" and he will hand her toys if they are sitting on the floor together playing.

These are just a few of the many many cute things he is doing that I don't want to forget. I will definitely be writing again and again on this subject since he seems to be doing something new everyday.

Our Book Club

Andrew and I decided to start our own little book club. I think it is kind of neat that we are our own little club...just the two of us. We are choosing a book to read together, figuring out how to break it down into weekly reading, then coming together once a week to discuss it. This will provide topics for meaningful conversations and give us some dedicated "study" time together. So, we have chosen our first books, which we have both been taught concepts from but never actually read. I always like to take the opportunity to let people smarter than me give me advice even if I feel like I have "heard" it before. There is definitely something to be said for studying it on your own. So, he is reading "For Men Only" and I am reading "For Women Only". We have each read our first chapters and are going to discuss it later today. We still haven't totally worked out the logistics but generally we will just pull out topics that were particularly interesting or rang true etc...to discuss and apply to our lives. I think after we are finished with these books we will study the same book and right now it is a toss up between "Sheet Music" and "Revolutionary Parenting".

Braedon's Cast Removal

Today makes exactly five weeks that Braedon wore his cast from breaking his arm and the day he got to have it removed. It was very traumatic, which we figured it would be. He freaks anyway about the sound of the vacuum cleaner, food processor, bubble maker, etc...Not to mention that the person that took the cast off was the same person that put it on and Braedon remembered him because it hurt. So, pretty much as soon as the gentleman walked in Braedon started to tense up. Then, when he fired up the "saw" Braedon started really crying. Daddy just had to hold him really tight until it was over. The entire process took less than five minutes so praise God it was over quickly. Here are some pictures to memorialize the whole event. Braedon was playing in the waiting room and I snapped a picture, which is the last picture of him with his cast. The others are of the process and the first of Braedon without the cast on his arm anymore.

Braedon's Cast Removal-2

We ended up throwing the smelly thing away after dad said he wanted to keep it but then caught a whiff of when I asked him to carry it. I made a note of everyone who signed it. Of course, mommy and daddy were the first to sign it. Then, Uncle Shawn signed it for himself and Madison & Alaina. Auntie Michelle made a special trip over to see him and sign it the day after he got it put on. That Sunday at church we saw Anne Wright who signed it. Melissa Hausdorf, from the preschool ministry, of course signed it. That same Sunday, we saw the Johnson crew at church and Jen, Lindsay, and Emilie signed it. The next Friday, Pam Short went with me to take Braedon to a follow-up Orthopaedic appointment and she signed it. His teacher, Ms. Jackie from Lighthouse Academy, signed it one day when he was at school. A couple of weeks later, Margaret Hock came to visit us and she signed it. I kept forgetting to ask people to sign it so there are many other of our friends I wish would have signed it. Actually, I am glad to be gone with it and I think Braedon is too. The first thing we did when we got home was give him a bath...without a trash bag on his arm.

Braedon & Alaina

Some sweet pictures of them playing together.

Savasuk's Handprints

While we were playing with finger paint, I decided to get hand prints of the four of us.

Braedon & Alaina Fingerpainting

My niece, Alaina, was visiting us today. I broke out Braedon's finger paint so they would have something fun and special to do together. Yeah, I had this grand idea of them cracking up at each other and covered from head to toe in paint when we were finished. So, I covered our entire kitchen table with paper. I put shirts of mine on them so they look like they are wearing little smocks. Then, I started clapping and said "do you guys want to paint with your fingers?" They said, "yeah" in unison and sounded really excited. So, we all go over to the table and I pour out some of each color for both of them and they just look at it. Even after I showed them what to do, they seemed to have more fun watching me than actually getting their hands dirty.

Astronomy Pictures

My husband is becoming a great astronomer and really enjoys his new hobby of astrophotography. Here are some of his first images with his new camera to go on his telescope. There are a couple of the moon and one great one of Saturn.

What I Don't Want to Miss

The song "One Life to Love" by 33 Miles almost makes me cry every time I hear it. The part that really gets me is: "you only get just one time around, you only get one shot at this, one chance to find out the one thing that you don't want to miss."

I cry tears of joy that God tugged on our hearts and we chose for me to stay home (at least part-time) with our babies. I cry tears of heartache for mamas who can't stay home with their babies because of tough life circumstances. I cry tears of sorrow for mamas who do stay home with their babies but focus their attention in the wrong places and are still "missing" sweet experiences with their babies even though they don't have to be outside the home and away from them. As for "What I Don't Want to Miss", I am having trouble putting it into words. Let's just say that now I realize what I was missing when I worked outside the home full-time and I am so eternally grateful that I don't have to miss it anymore. God is so good!

Brock's Balloons

We had the honor of supporting a dear family in our Sunday School class, The Meadows, as they celebrated what would have been their son's fourth birthday on 3-3-09. He went home to heaven last year. They asked for balloons to be released in his memory and to take pictures. Nita put together a slideshow of the pictures and so beautifully shares how they were blessed by them. The Lord has used the support of many who released balloons that day to comfort them in such a great way. I thank God so much for The Meadows and that glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ continues to be their priority, even in the midst of their tragic loss. They inspire me to make the most of every second here on this earth because their story is a reminder of how quickly life can change...completely unexpectedly. Most importantly though, their story inspires me to seek to glorify Jesus Christ in ALL things.

I Think They Like Each Other

I can't even express in words how thankful I am that I get to be at home with my babies a whole lot more often than I used to be. For one, they would not get to play together very often. Times like these are so special to me because I used to buy into so many lies that kept me from believing I could ever be a stay-at-home mom. I am so thankful to God that those lies have been replaced with His truth and I am living my dream or else I would miss times like these. I think I just inspired myself to do a post on why I love being a stay-at-home mom. :-) This post, however, is really supposed to be about the gaze they are giving one another in the first picture. The second is Braedon's cheese-arm thingie he does. The last couple are sweet kisses from big brother to little sister. Isn't that just too cute for words?

Shawn & Braedon

Shawn came home yesterday a little down and missing his girls. I hope that it was some comfort to him to be around Braedon. When Shawn's key hits the door, Braedon can hear it and runs to the gate saying "Shawn". So, as soon as Shawn hopped over the gate there Braedon was saying his name and reaching up to be picked up. Then, Braedon took Shawn's hat and looked too cute trying to wear it so I had to snap a couple of pics.

Valentine's Day 2009

I was having fun with the camera the day before Valentine's Day. Since I have a baby girl now I wanted to get some cute girly pictures. So, the photo shoot was really for Kaley but then I ended up getting Braedon in one picture. I was trying to get him to give her a hug and/or kiss and I think he got confused because he just kind of leaned over toward her and was laughing when I took the shot. After I straightened Kaley up a bit he wouldn't cooperate so I only got this one picture of both of them.

Grandma & Grandpa Snow with Babies

A couple of pictures of grandparents with the babies. The first three are from Madison's third birthday in early 2008. Braedon was right at one year old and Alaina was about 1 year and 3 months. I absolutely love the second picture of dad and Alaina. The last picture is mom holding her baby's babies on Thanksgiving 2008.

Cousin Alaina's second birthday

I am such an order freak and this post is out of order but I wanted to make sure I put it up here so family could enjoy the pictures. The Snow baby cousins were over and we had a little celebration for Alaina's second birthday while mom and dad were in town for Thanksgiving. Here are a couple of silly pics.