Blessed

I am just feeling blessed today. Well, really I'm blessed every day. But today I just feel like sharing this feeling.

I am so thankful to God that I get to be a stay-at-home mom! This has been my heart's desire for as long as I can remember, and I've been able to do it since Tyler was born (8+ years now). And the Lord has made it possible. I have an amazing husband who loves me and takes care of me. He has a good job that provides for our family. We have two amazing little boys that I love. I am just so thankful that I have this opportunity.

I love being able to participate in my kids' lives, whether they are at home, at school, playing ball, whatever. I love being able to go to the school and have lunch with them when I want. I love going on field trips with them. I love going to their classrooms to help with stuff and get to know their friends. I love watching them play football, baseball, LEGO's, fishing, or whatever else they do.

I also love being able to go grocery shopping "unassisted" when there are not so many people at the store in the middle of the week during the school year. (Let's be honest now.) I love being able to take care of my home. I really don't mind most of the housework, except for dusting. I hate dusting. I love being able to take care of things that Jeremy needs me to take care of while he is at work. I love being "Mom."

I am also thankful for the other moms in my life, whether they "stay home" too, or not. My two older sisters are the ones I go to for advice and prayer first and most often. I know and love and trust them, and I know they will pray for me. I also know that they are in the "trenches" of motherhood, just like me. There are others that live around me that I see and talk to occasionally, who help me to feel like a normal mom whose kids aren't perfect but no less precious. There are blogs I read that encourage me in my marriage and in motherhood. Then there are my Facebook friends, who post the funny, crazy, or challenging things their kids are doing. These things all help me.

There is much encouragement in sharing life's joys and challenges with those around us. None of us is perfect. And neither are our kids (or husbands). I appreciate the shared misery (ha ha!), the inspiration, and the challenges that other moms give me, as well as the prayer, support, and encouragement. Thank you, fellow moms!

Christmas 2011 (a month later)

Yes, I realize it is the end of January. But I just realized that I still had pictures from Christmas on my camera as I was getting the recent fishing pictures off of it. Well, better late than never, right? I'm going to let the pictures tell the story (with just a bit of narration).

Spreading the reindeer food; I love how the flash on the camera caught the food flying through the air! And yes, it's warm enough on Christmas Eve to be wearing short sleeves.

Look what Santa brought! This thing is amazing, but they still haven't put it together and made it work. It's a robot that you build with LEGO's. It has software that makes it work and talk and obey commands. I think Santa brought it for Jeremy as much as for the boys!

These boys LOVE their football cards!

And the new Madden NFL 2012 for Wii

Yes, he's excited.

A big ol' box of Lincoln Logs

Happy Boys!

New Nerf guns! You can't have too many of those...or can you?!

I think he likes it.

And of course, the LEGO's

Santa also brought them scooters, which they love.

 Now it's time to build the new LEGO sets.

This is not nearly all of them.

We also went to visit Jeremy's brother, Pete, and his family and in-laws to have Christmas with them. This little cutie is Jackson, Pete's son. The boy LOVES tractors!

This is what we got him. They were all excited about it. 

Older cousins helping out

Isn't he just precious?!

Tucker's fish

Well, after the 8 lb bass Tyler caught on Friday, the boys were fishing again on Saturday. This time, it was Tucker's turn to catch a good one. He was proud of his catch. Jeremy said it was about a 1 1/2 lb one. Good catch for Tucker, particularly since he doesn't stick around long enough to actually catch anything. A 5 year old needs constant activity, and fishing just doesn't always do that.

But on this particular day, he hung in there long enough to make a catch. Perhaps he'll be encouraged enough to stick with it longer next time he goes out there.

Here's the proud boy with his catch:

Tyler's Big Fish

Tyler caught the biggest fish of his life (so far) tonight. This bass was 8 lbs!!! And 23 inches long! They were fishing at the pond in our backyard just as it was getting dark. Tyler and his Daddy were quite proud and so excited! Tyler came running into the house to tell me to get the camera and bring it out. I was not expecting something so big. I mean, this is something the professional fishermen would be excited about. (I know, because I've seen the fishing shows.) :-)


Tyler and I were running back and forth up to the house to get things we needed. We had to get the camera, a flashlight (it started getting dark), the scale, some string, and Jeremy's boots because it was muddy and I was fussing at him for getting his good shoes muddy. We needed the string to keep a hold of her in the water because Tucker had fallen asleep, and we were trying to keep her long enough for Tucker to wake up and see it. I ended up just picking him up and carrying him out there to see it.


It was quite exciting, and Tyler wanted to be sure I showed everyone the pictures! So, here they are...

Tyler, the author

Last Friday, Tyler's teacher sent me a text message to let me know that Tyler was a 1st place young authors winner!  He won 1st place in 3rd grade for non-fiction at his school.  Now his writing will be sent to the state competition, which will be in the spring.

Needless to say, I had a big, proud smile on my face.  We are all excited for him.  His writing was a class assignment near the beginning of the school year.  There is some exaggeration to make for "juicy" writing, as they call it.  Here it is.  (And for the record...his daddy does have time to help with dinner, particularly helping to clean it up every night.) :-)

Tucker's first tooth

Well, my 5 year old BABY Tucker lost his first tooth yesterday!  He came home with a "big surprise" from school yesterday. His little baby tooth was in a ziploc.  He said he pulled it out himself, just like Tyler did with his first tooth one day in kindergarten.  There was no drama, no blood.  Just a very proud 5 year old with a tooth, ready to put under his pillow that night, along with a little note for the tooth fairy saying how excited he was. :-)

My babies are growing up too fast.  But I am proud of the little boys that they are and the young men they are going to become.  I love them with all of my heart!

He got tired of me trying to get a picture of the space in his teeth, so he doesn't look too happy. His teeth are a bit crowded, so it is a small space.

Here he is at bedtime ready to put his tooth and the note under his pillow for the tooth fairy. :-)

Football Boys

My boys LOVE football and everything associated with it. They especially love the Saints. :-) But they just love football in general. They also have an insane number of football cards, along with some baseball, basketball, and maybe some other kinds. But they each have 500-600 football cards. And it's kind of crazy how much they, even the 5 year old, know about the game of football and so many of the players in the NFL.

I ran across these photos and just wanted to share them because I think they're good pictures.