Children are not a burden to escape or endure; they are a blessing that drives us to Christ because we are incapable of parenting well without Him. - Kim Brenneman

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Zoo Trip

Today we took a trip over the the Portland Zoo. It was their 4 dollar Tuesday (it use to be 2 dollars but the upped it... still worth the trip once or twice a year for the kiddos). The boys had a great time running around and seeing the animals.
Here are a few pictures from our day...


Joshua's favorite is the Elephants


Daniel enjoyed the Penguins


Elijah pretended he was on an African safari


Joshua wanted to see if the lion would bite him...


And of course ELijah had to try the same thing as his big brother!

Overall it was a great day and now i'm ready for bed!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Scones

I found a SUPER tasty gluten free scone recipe.... Click here if you want it too!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Life today...


-I have a little boy laying next to me right now who is having a hard time sleeping. He has a bit of a runny nose and of course he is my little neat freak so it's hard on him when snot is involved. Poor little guy.

-I have decided to go off of Coffee and sugar for the next 2 months at least. I've gone off of coffee before and i felt GREAT! I just love the taste and warmness of it, so I'll just have to drink some tea when i want that warm feeling and call it good. As for the sugar, I've just had way to much lately and i can feel it in my body and the way it's functioning.

-I've been training for a 10K. I never thought I would actually run more then 2 miles at a time, but I'm doing it! I've mostly done everything on my treadmill, but today i went to our local "lake" (i say lake because really coming from Minnesota where we have lakes you can't even see across, it's more like a pond)and i ran around it in 40 minutes! I was super excited because i was hoping i could do it in an hour, but it only took 40 minutes! It is 3.5 miles around, so i was going about 11 minutes a mile... so i'm pretty excited! My goal is to be able to run it twice by 6 weeks in less then an hour and a half.

- All this running has my circulation so happy! I've struggled with circulation issues and blood clots since Daniel was in utero, but now my circulation and clotting are next to none! It;s so nice to be able to drive for more then an hour at a time without feeling like my legs are going to fall off. Yippee

-I just recently reconnected with a good friend from my prairie days! It's so fun to see where old friends have moved to and how many kids they have. Her and her husband were on the 5 year plan so they just had their first little boy last year. It was fun to catch up.

-Speaking of babies, i have baby fever BAD. We had friends over last night who have a sweet little 5 month old boy. Matt asked to hold him and he said that it was making him want more kids :) hehehehehe i like to see God working on him like that and i hope to someday add more children to our family possibly through adoption. We'll see what the Lord has in store.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

what brings joy to my heart...

Joshua using his imagination and building castles and airplanes out of legos...



and of course i never get tired of seeing my little boy sleep



I am truly a blessed momma

Thursday, February 3, 2011

And the winner is....


Joshua drew the winner but Daniel wanted to be the one in the picture :)

p.s. I can't believe I'm 27... though it really doesn't feel as old as i thought it would.. actually, i feel like i should be older!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Valentines Day

If you haven't figured it out by now, I love traditions! When i was a little girl i remember waking op on valentines day morning and there would be a card under my door from my step dad. I felt so special and so loved!He always would make an effort to make me feel loved and special. When Matt and I got married i dreamed about having a little girl and how much she was going to be loved by her Daddy. I knew he would do fun things like that with her and bring her on dates. Well now that we have children and all are boys, I've had to be the one to make the day special. Yes valentines day is just a "hallmark" holiday but it's a great excuse to celebrate the love that our family has. After all... February is the month that Matt and i started dating and our first date was on valentines day 8 years ago. February is certainly the month of love for me!
So I'm trying to think of special things that i can do for my boys this valentines day. I'm thinking that I'm going to make them each special valentines day cards and a lunch date out with me. I want my boys to cherish each other and learn that it's important to show others that you love them. They can't do that until they have been shown love. I can't expect them to do nice things for others, or encourage others unless i myself am doing it... especially for them.

How do you feel about Valentines day? Are you going to do anything special for your spouse/loved one/ children?

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Happy February

Our day today was beautiful!


sunshine pouring in the window in the morning!


Ferdinand with his new cowbell! :) can you see it?


Friends came to play today!!!


Daniel, Elijah and Moshe enjoying the sun!


Cheese


Decorating gluten free Heart cookies


Isabelle (sorry Megan, not sure if i spelt her name right)


Yummy! Josie especially loved the frosting!

How was your first day of February?