Dizzy

The other day I was at the store and I made an impulse buy. Shocking I know...

Anywho I bought one of those red plastic swings. I'd been wanting one because I thought Shiloh might like it but knew Asher would love it. He stays in his swing constantly. He loves it. Side thought I am really glad I found that extra set of re-chareable batteries because now we don't have to wait a whole day for batteries. Yay!

Chad, wonderful man that he is, went to the hardware store to buy something to attach the swing to the tree. Poor guy is always finishing random projects I start (bunk beds maybe?). Chad did a great job and all the kiddos love the swing.

Jude and Shiloh like to twist the swing and spin. The other day they both ended up sick to their stomachs because they spun around so much. I laughed really hard...does that make me a bad mom?

7!!!!!!!!

I've been married to this guy 7 years! Happy, happy, happy! Here's a glimpse of some of our time together :D!!!!!!!!

Not a very wordy post but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, in which case you just got about 30,000 words ;)

2 Month Report

Asher is 2 months old today! Crazy how fast time is flying by. And he is so big. I can't stand it. At birth Asher was 9 lb 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches. Today he weighed in at 14 lb and measured about 24 inches. He is wearing 6 month clothing. Stop the madness.

Asher is a pretty swell little guy. Minus the fussiness...which we have discovered can be calmed by turning on the hair dryer. Only down side to the hair dryer is it makes the room hot and could be a potential fire hazard...I have even recorded the hair dryer on my phone and turn it on in the car to help with the crying. Asher hates the car. He is strong and holds his head up. He can smile now - but in true boy fashion if I try and capture it on camera he turns to blank stare or frowny face.

I love my sweet little guy.

Catch Up

Life with three boys is busy. And it is near impossible to sit down at the computer and write a blog. But I wanted share some pics and a glimpse at what we've been up to. So I am writing this on my phone as I nurse Asher and watch the World News. Don't worry I can multi-task plus there are plenty pharmaceutical commercials I have no desire to watch ("pain during intercourse after menopause" - really I thought the Viagra commercials were bad but these lady ones are creepy) so that will provide ample time to type with my thumb. I just realized I started three sentances with conjunctions "and," "so," and "but." Can I do that? If not oh well because fixing it on the phone would be way to much effort. Anyways here is some pictures of what we've been up too:


Or not. I can't seem to add photos...hmmm...

Ok well we went to Miller Outdoor Theater on Monday. We "watched" a play with my friend Melissa and her two littles while eating a picnic lunch. What we learned: don't bother with a picnic lunch at Miller, your three year old will not pay attention better to find a table in the shade at the zoo. After the play we made our way to the zoo! We love the zoo. On the way Jude fell down the hill and scratched up his knee pretty bad. If only my car was not so far away I could have snagged a band aid from our first aid kit. Fortunately we were meeting up with another friend Stephanie and she was able to produce a Band aid after digging in her purse! Yay!

We saw the reptiles. I do not like reptiles. But I have 3 boys so I guess I should get used to them. Stephanie reminded me that we used to play with a 10 ft Burmese Python in a pillow case. Really Mr. Mike? Really? God Fathers should not let their GB (god baby) play with big snakes.

After the reptiles we saw the monkeys and then it was on to the "splash mountain" ie the splash pad! It was a great day...that is until the car ride home in which Asher screamed his head off while we sat in Houston traffic. Yay.

I can't seem to recall what we did the rest of the week. But I know it was busy. I am getting distracted by Lilah standing on my leg and Asher smiling up at me. :) not quite the post I intended but oh well it's a post!

2 Ain't Got Nothing on 3

When you think about it 2 ain't got nothing on 3. I mean really. There's:

• the 3 Muskateers, 
• Neapolitan Iceream from Bluebell (a delightful combination of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry!), 
• a TV show My 3 Sons (which must have been decent since everybody and their mom has mentioned it to me - never heard of it), 
• The 3 Ninjas (Rocky, Colt and TumTum "Rocky loves Emily"), 

• "a cord of three strands" -Ecclesiastic 4:12, 
• The Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit), 
• and now of course I have 3 little boys (Jude, Shiloh and Asher). 

I'm sure if I thought long enough I could come up with more examples of the awesomeness of 3. But I can tell you one thing that is not awesome: the age 3! Really 2 you think you were bad? Not in comparison to 3. Terrible 2 I laugh at you because you ain't got nothing on 3. Terrifying 3.

Jude's attitude is terrifying! I mean he is soooooo whiny (where did I put that video "Wendy and the Whine"?). And He throws terrible tantrums. We go from delightful conversation to screaming, crying, running away, locking himself in that bathroom (which I can easily unlock - thanks fire inspection for foster care enlightening me and making me prepared), hitting me (that never ends well for him), etc. It's awful! I think some of it comes from him wanting to be independent and learning his boundaries and being incapable of controlling his emotions when things don't go the way he desires. We are working on appropriate responses and such but dealing with this 3 year old is exhausting.

Though it makes me think of how I have many years on him and sometimes I can't control my temper. Especially lately I've been flying off the handle. It's very frustrating because I know better but I still act out with yelling or slamming a door really you might think I was 3. And after all of my little outburst I immediately think of James 1:19-21 "...everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because mans anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires..." oh why did I memorize this in high school - I blame you Jennifer and Kevin. And then the guilt trip starts and I want to fall into despair and beat myself up.

But I want to combat this guilt trip. Guilt is not good - conviction is. I should feel convicted and that is good if it makes me run to Jesus and repent (which is to say turn away from my sin). 2 Corintians 7:10-11 teaches us that godly grief (conviction) produces repentance whereas world grief (guilt or feeling bad cause you got caught, etc.) gets you death. What's the difference? Well Dr. Woo (my former professor at HBU and pastor at Wilcrest Baptist Church) used to preach a sermon entitled the "7 Marks of Repentance" from this text and I could spend quite some time here but my children are going crazy so I'll be short - basically you realize you have wronged God and you never ever want to wrong him in that way again so much so that what you did disgusts you and then you want to make that wrong right (like Zaccheaus did Luke 19).

That is where I'm at. My anger that is causing these temper tantrums are offensive to God and I don't want to continue offending him but I need help. I need Jesus to change my heart and take away this anger that keeps rising in me because I can't but he can. I love Jesus because when I mess up I can go to him and he is my power and strength to not keep messing up.

So if you think of me say a little prayer that I keep running to Jesus and that my 3 children will not drive me insane!

Weekend Mischief!

This weekend was a full weekend!

We kicked things off early on Friday. We had lunch with some friends in the neighborhood and then headed home to squeeze in a nap before Jennifer was to arrive after taking her foster dog to visit a potential adoptive family who happens to live in Cypress...anyway we hardly ever see each other and I was super excited. Chad was very concerned when I informed him of Jennifer's visit and the reason behind it...he thought we might be the adoptive family...2 boston terriers is quite enough for any house I think...so no we were and are not the family!

When Jennifer arrived Jude was very disappointed (and he used that word - he learned it from Word Girl "Word Up") because Rebecca had not come. He asked several times why but eventually was distracted by the air mattress I had blown up for the boys to jump on (it was kinda rainy and we need to get energy out some way).

After a delightful visit with Jennifer we watched a movie, ate dinner and went to bed. The first part of Saturday was spent cleaning house. Of course while cleaning house Jude and Shiloh disappeared outside.

When I found them they were playing...in the mud...so we cleaned them up. 

While Asher slept in his swing.

Saturday evening we went to my sister's graduation party! Yay Charity! Good job! A college graduate! Love you!

Sunday dawned bright and early. 6am. Hmmmmmmm. Why can Jude not sleep in? 

Putting aside the multiple meltdowns my children had (yay!?!?) it was a lovely day. We had coffee. Daddy went out and procured some yummy bagels and cinnamon twists for breakfast. Chad started to put together baby books for Shiloh and Asher and attempted to fill in some of the gaps in Jude's as my gift. Jude and Shiloh helped make a cake for mommy, whilst mommy took a bath with the leftover lavender bath salts (gifts for Charity and Mimi) and read the 5th book in Game of Thrones. 

We went to lunch with our church. We took naps. Impromptu photo shoot of baby Asher (not the greatest but if anyone who is a photographer would like to take some of this cute kid for free that would be awesome...if not we will settle with Mommy Shots). 

Dropped off gifts for Mimi. Visited with Granny. Watched "the funnies"  as Chad calls them (America's Funniest Home Video's) or "Captain America" as Jude calls them. Boys to bed. Yay! 

Children are a blessing even if they have meltdowns all day long :)

Whew. Just typing this post makes me tired. It was a long weekend following a long week. But it was good. Now I'm off to make dinner!