Signs of My Children

Last night while getting into bed I stepped on Diego and Baby Jaguar. I picked them up and just giggled. My sweet Karoline forgot them when she cleaned up all her toys. But I loved it because it reminded me of my sweet baby girl. See I have been gone the past two nights during our bedtime routines. I MISS being around to put my kids to bed. I always put Anderson to bed because I nurse him, but TJ usually puts Karoline to bed. But after they read and good night kisses she calls for me. We quickly talk about the books they read, say her Bible verse (see video below), say a quick prayer, and night night Karoline.

All this made me think about the little things I find around the house after they have gone to bed that I end up having to pick up. Sometimes it frustrates me because I am tired and I don't want to clean anymore... but they are signs of my children. Precious reminders of the wonderful gifts God has blessed me with. I really don't mind picking up Diego and Baby Jaguar. Infact, it is a pleasure!

Enjoy the video of Karoline saying her Bible verse all by herself and of her dancing.


Here is Anderson eating... it is a little slow (not very action packed). The Grandparents will love it though of course.

Sundays...

Well, 99.9% of the time I love being a "pastors" wife (TJ is technically a pastor even though he is a worship pastor). But Sunday mornings sometimes I don't like it. Sundays just tend to be a little hard on me, but not too much to handle. TJ typically leaves around 6:45AM and I try and get up around 7:45-8AM and at least take a shower before the kids wake up. The first thing I don't like is that I never get to go to church with my husband. I miss that kind of... having a non stressful Sunday morning would be so nice. Getting to church is not really an issue because we go to the 10:30AM service (if there was a later service I would go to it... I am NOT a morning person!). Problem is that Anderson usually naps at 10:30AM so he basically misses his morning nap. So here comes the hard part.... TJ has to stay at church to help tear down and lock up because we are meeting in a gym. I have to come home with two VERY HUNGRY kids, one of which is VERY overtired.

So it is just mass chaos for about an hour as I attempt to nurse Anderson while Karoline is fussing because she wants her lunch, Anderson won't let me put him down while I make her lunch... So I make a PB&J and cut an avocado one handed, then Anderson is screaming for his sweet potatoes... Whisper follows me around looking for food and he is HUGE... Karoline gets avocado all over the place (because between Karoline fussing and Anderson screaming I forgot to put on her bib)... While finally feeding Anderson he hits the spoon and sends the sweet potato flying, I knock down the sweet potato bowl trying to get the paper towel to clean it up... so it is on the rug while Whisper is running over to "clean" it up for me, and then Anderson keeps screaming while I get more. Karoline wants fruit RIGHT AWAY while I can't get it for her because if I get up Anderson will start screaming again!! The chaos keeps going and going until finally both of them are in bed.... then TJ walks in the door!!! I lay down on the sofa and breath! It is very short term but is my most stressful part of my week.... That being said, I cannot complain really! If that is as bad as it gets I really should not complain. It is NOTHING compared to what my friends have to go through, I know! But there are many Sundays where I just wish my mom was around to come help me... She is coming TUESDAY!! YEAH!!!!

I also miss going out to eat after church... Since TJ does not get home until after 1PM we never get to go to Sunday lunch as a family. I always LOVED doing this as a family when I was younger and I wish we could. I hope that maybe the Lord will bless us with a permanent facility soon so we can start this tradition in our family. Enough of my pointless rambling... PICTURES!
EDITED TO ADD... The PERKS of being a pastors wife totally outway the issues of Sunday morning! I LOVE BEING IN THE MINISTRY! I could name a million things I LOVE about being in the ministry! Maybe I'll blog about that one day :)

It is very common for Karoline to wake up and her hair look like a birds nest!!! I just had to take some pictures this morning... her hair can be a little difficult to tame!



Yes, she HAD to wear her "spy" glasses today to church with her new beautiful watermelon smocked dress! And YES, she wore them the entire time she was at church... inside and out! But at least they matched!!

Anderson up on all 4's... he has been doing this a lot lately!!

Karoline was going in for a kiss...

Anderson's 5 month picture in his chair... GiGi and PopPop call this his prison outfit!

Karoline LOVES her pop up tent, she calls "yellow house", that she got from her third set of grandparents, Judy and Eddie (Natalie's parents).... It was a little cold outside so we played inside...


My living room is too small or the toys are too big... OR both!! :)

This Week In Pictures

Here is our week... I KNOW my kids are in their PJ's in almost all the pics but I PROMISE we do get dressed in real clothes... but usually after lunch :) PJ's are just so comfy... AND getting Karoline dress is like chasing a wild animal through the house. Example: Natalie calls and most of the time I am out of breath because I am trying to get Karoline's clothes on!!

Do you see where my husband is... in front of the TV watching basketball. I know why they call it March Madness! I am going to go MAD if it is not over soon. Really, it has not been that bad but I HATE basketball. If it was football I would not mind at all!

When Anderson wakes up so happy after his naps. He just lays in his bed and sucks on his fingers until we arrive to rescue him. He is so cute! Today he was on ALL FOURS when TJ went and got him!! He has been doing this a lot lately! He is so strong! As far as the nights go he has gone three nights now with NO FEEDINGS!!! So he is nursing 5 times during the day and eats 1 tablespoon or so of solids for lunch and dinner.


We have a WINNER- SWEET POTATOES!!!
Finally Anderson is enjoying solids. This week he began eating sweet potatoes with rice cereal mixed with it and he loves it. He also tried banana's with rice cereal tonight and loved it too.


His finger slipped into his nose while he was sucking his fingers and it was too funny to pass up taking a pic.

I ordered these from OneStepAhead.com (a favorite website of mine for random baby stuff). I make my baby food because it is SO much cheeper than buying Gerber packs of baby food. Today I cooked three medium sized sweet potatoes for the cost of $4.50 and got about 68 oz. of baby food. You can get a pack of Gerber Organic baby food which is only 5 oz. for $1.50! That's just CRAZY!!! (I prefer to throw my money away at Pottery Barn or PBK!) Anyway, I made Karoline's baby food too but I didn't have these. I just used ice cube trays, which is great, but these are so easy to grab, go in the microwave, and the dishwasher. They are also very easy for traveling or grabbing because you are going out to eat. Anyway, I just wanted to share my great find.

I know, you are probably thinking I am a mean mom but he was smiling I promise and then he started crying! But every child needs a picture of them crying right!? He stopped crying pretty much right away so GiGi and Gammy don't worry!

Karoline has had a fun week. Baby Shasta came over and her parent, Shane and Jessica, brought us lasagna (TJ loves Jessica's lasagna). Also I don't really have a picture to go with this but she is asking "What's that?" about every other second. I know this is normal but if you are a parent who has been through this phase you know it can get old fast. Generally now I say "I don't know. What is that?" and then she will tell ME what it is... so I know she knows what things are, it is just her game.

Huggums is becoming more and more a part of every minute of our lives! :) Karoline LOVES to feed her, put her to sleep, push her in the swing outside (I think we bought a $400 swing set for Huggums- a DOLL), give her a bottle, etc. If Huggums is lost we TJ and I have to drop everything and find her ASAP!



Karoline LOVES it when I bring Anderson into her room to wake her up from her nap. She gets so excited and they were so cute today so I ran and got my camera. I LOVE how they are interacting with each other these days.




Anderson has really enjoyed his excersaucer. Also, you can see in these pictures that he LOVES to have his hands in his mouth or suck on his wrist! It is so funny to me because Karoline was never like this. I am afraid he is going to be one of those kids that puts EVERYTHING in his mouth!



Enjoy your weekends... we are getting ready for Gammy's arrival on Tuesday!!! Yeah!!! We can't wait for her to be here! Also I get to get out and go to a scrapbook party with my friends which should be fun. Love to alll...

Easter Sunday Fun

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. I took my camera to church because TJ wants me to get some pics for the website but I needed my stronger flash so they didn't turn out so well, but I thought I would post a few. We are still in a gym since we outgrew out church building and are continuing to grow and now need to move again! We had two packed and wonderful services and Dave started a new series called "Grace Anatomy". My favorite part of the sermon was his definition of GRACE: What we need and not what we deserve. Then we went to dinner with some friends and it was so nice to not have to cook (and clean up)! I am so thankful to our Lord and Savior for what He did on the cross and I LOVE Easter Sunday!

Oh and Yes, TJ does have on a coat and tie but don't be fooled, he still has on jeans and his ugly Converse!


Avery was SO cute today, as always!

Karoline LOVES going on the stage after the service. She is going to be one of those pastor kids that thinks she owns the church because her daddy works there! Check out the design on the drum in the background... TJ did that. He is becoming quite the graphic artist these days! He also did the Grace Anatomy graphic you see in the first picture.

Future stars..


It is so hard to get this girl to stay still for a picture :)

I love his sweater vest but of course TJ hates it...

Karoline put on her bunny ears Natalie brought her to eat lunch (Nat, she was eating peanut butter and honey in ER honor!)

EASTER BASKET FUN...
The baskets from us and some clothes and books from my parents...

The baskets GiGi and PopPop sent...(I personally just love the Tonka truck!)


Karoline really enjoyed her bunny puppet...

Anderson thought his easter baskets were fun to hold on to...

We tried to get a good family picture but it is hard when there is not anyone there to take it :)

So sweet... it took about 100 pictures to be taken to get this shot.

Me and my precious children...

P.S. Mom, I hope this is enough pictures to make you feel like you didn't miss much!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had such a fun Easter Egg Hunt at church today. They had games, a raffle drawing and Linda did a devotion. After that they released the kids for the egg hunt. Karoline is an observer so we got there and she just watched everyone else play games and it also took her a few minutes to want to hunt eggs herself. She was enjoying every one else hunt for eggs. It was beautiful weather so all in all it was a great!
Here are some larger photos...
Susan tries to get Karoline to play a water game but Karoline did not want to get wet, of course!

Greg (Susans husband) did get Karoline to play this little fishing game.

Karoline and Avery walked around to all the games holding hands.

My handsome man!

Anderson and Pastor Dave.

TIME TO HUNT EGGS (and get candy for mommy and daddy!)




We ate hotdogs after and Karoline ate the hot dog first and the bun second.
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What a fun day and I can't wait for tomorrow!!