Evan sings his ABCs . . . .

Welcome 2012!

Welcome 2012!  Welcome to a year to be filled with family, love and togetherness!  Welcome to a year of excitement as our first born will start kindergarden, our youngest will become potty-trained and our middle child will learn to live without a binkie (#2 and #3 are a testament to my power of positive thinking)!  I want to welcome 2012 as a year that I know will present challenges, but that will invite our minds to solve problems as a family and help us to navigate through the beautiful chaos of everyday life.  And the chaos certainly is beautiful.  As my favorite mommy blogger puts it,  the chaos is beautiful . . . "like the unorganized dissonant tones of instruments as they tune before a symphony.  It's all in preparation of something good, and soon the maestro will tap his wand and all will fall together in lovely harmonies" . . . . yup, that's what I'm telling myself.  

As to be expected, our family has been a bit crazed since the beginning of December.  With three birthdays in our immediate family plus Christmas - well, we've had a lot going on.  And now that the busy season is upon me at work, indoor soccer has begun and pink eye won't leave my boys alone, we're trending towards a very busy January as well.   

Which brings me to my specific goal for 2012 . . . complete gratitude.  No matter what we are doing, how busy we are, what we have or don't have . . . I will be grateful and present in the moment.  I will thank my sweet husband more frequently for his teamwork in making our family what it is.  I will kiss my babies even more and say a sweet prayer every time I squeeze them to thank God for picking me to be their mommy.  I will play trains and legos on the ground even more.  I will think twice before losing my patience.  I will let the small things pass.   I will give others the benefit of the doubt.  And for all of the mommy moments to come for which I will doubt myself or question whether my decisions are the right ones, I will lean on the glorious times when I have just known that I was born to do this.  When I feel like the love for my kids gives me some sort of special power that will overcome fatigue and exhaustion and that the super-human strength of a mother's love will lead me in the right direction.  

Oh yeah, I'd like to run a few 5K races too.  

Christmas with little kids is the best gift an adult could ask for.  The pure joy of the season is magical.  We started off the holidays with Drew and Owen's preschool Christmas program that was all sorts of adorable.  Aside from a breathtaking singing performance, they each presented us with Christmas gifts that they had handcrafted, wrapped and signed at preschool.  So sweet.  So amazing. 

The ornaments that the boys make at preschool are amazing.  They are so creative and festive.  With both boys in preschool now, we will definitely have enough handmade ornaments to fill an entire tree in their room. 

This sweet reindeer is made with loving care by my baby Evan.  

From time to time, Drew can be an ornery little boy.  He doesn't always listen, he likes to aggravate his brothers and the boy can be silly to no end.  But sometimes, he just amazes me.  And the evening of his preschool Christmas program was one of those nights.  His class was singing a song about sharing.  The lyrics were something like . . ."if I have some and then I give you some, then we both have some!"  And right at the moment of these lyrics, Drew reaches over to the little boy on his right and literally acts like he is sharing with him!  It was perfectly placed in the song and made all of the parents and teachers smile.  Especially this proud mommy.  I was over the top proud of my Drew bear.

And one special note about the video below:  Mr. Evan was not cooperating very well on this particular evening and wouldn't sit still.  Thank goodness for Grandma Darlene's kind heart for holding Evan in the back and allowing me the opportunity to sit up front and enjoy the performance.  Dan also stood in the back of the room and you'll notice Drew point to Dan several times as he was singing.  This just makes me smile over and over . . . . 

And let me tell you about my Owie bear.  He did great.  He knew all of the words and motions and I was one proud mama beaming watching my 3 year-old!

We continued to prepare for the holidays.   Shopping, Christmas cards, time with cousins - all FUN things!

And fortunately, Santa and Mrs. Claus came to our house for a visit!  Thank you Santa for thinking of us again this year!  We love you!

Apples + Cousins = Happy, Happy Boys

It is my sacred Saturday night (Sunday morning) ritual and it is such a lovely feeling.  It may be 3:00 am 3:30 am 4:30 am, but I am way too happy to be tired.  I'm soooo enjoying being back in front my computer reviewing my photos after what has been far too long of an absence.  Everyone else in the home is fast asleep, my music is on, my wine is poured, my scented candle is glowing and I've got hundreds of photos from the past few months to edit and review.   This is really my happy place. 


As you can imagine, we've got a lot going on.  Aside from preparing for Christmas with three eager little boys, we have our oldest turning 5 the on the 26th of December and our youngest turning 2 on the 30th of December.  AND I have a husband who just celebrated his birthday on the 12th of December (no need to  discuss specific ages for us anymore . . .:)  With all of the party planning going on, I've got party invitations zooming out the door left and right and my office below reflects it . . .

The past few weeks have been very busy.  But this weekend, we've slowed down.  And I can tell that than an aura has entered our home that tells everyone that there is there is a new calm present and we have no need to hurry or rush and that unless the house is on fire, we have no reason to even leave the house or get out of our pajamas any sooner than we want to.  We hoard our weekends like little treasures and while sometimes I feel a bit guilty about staying so reclusive in the house on the weekends, I usually arrive at the conclusion of:  what better place to make memories and enjoy quality family time than our own home? 

And during our precious family time on the weekends, (this weekend being one such example), I generally have to pinch myself to remind myself that I am a mother.  I am a mom to these three precious little boys pouring a box of Wheat Thins on the kitchen floor and spilling juice on the carpet.  God has bestowed these three amazing blessings on me and sometimes I find it almost incomprehensible.  Here I have three little boys running around in front of our Christmas tree and in a short while, I am going to clutch my coffee cup super tight and laugh through a bunch of happy tears as I watch my boys tear open their Christmas presents while I wrap up the year feeling so amazingly grateful in a moment of clarity watching our Christmas play out in front of me.  This gift of motherhood truly is a miracle.     

Lots of emotions will be forthcoming this month with our Drew-bear turning five.  FIVE!!!  He will go to kindergarden next fall.  And then he will be in school.  And then he will go to prom and meet a girlfriend and go to college and then he will be packing up his room before we leave to take him to his first year of college and I will cry hard.  His room will be so empty.  I will wonder where all of the time went from when he was a little boy and when one of our most significant worries involved him wetting the bed.  We watched Toy Story 3 today and I had tears streaming down my face watching the scene when Andy comes back into his room one last time before leaving for college and finds a box of his old toys (this scene was likely responsible for driving the fears cited above).  Andy hesitantly decides to donate these toys to a little girl and takes some time to play with the little girl he's giving them to before driving away as a grown-up adult.  Owen was all snuggled up in my arms during this scene and asked me why I was crying (probably just because his head was getting wet with tears), and I explained to him that I know that day will come far too soon for my boys and I don't want these years to evaporate before my eyes.  These are the best years of our lives and I want to freeze them best I can.  More to come on this topic during the month of December as I prepare for my baby to turn FIVE.  

Moving on, we enjoyed some great time with our cousins at Eckert's this fall and I can't wait to share the photos.  Our cousins make everything more fun.     

  

I couldn't believe how eager Drew was to feed the birds (normally, I think that he would be timid about this sort of thing).  He loved it.  And I loved watching.  And aside from watching his joy, I love the photos I shot of these birds.  Sometimes the stars align and both my camera and the subject cooperate in perfect harmony and I'm left with super vibrant shots with beautiful clarity. 

I think that this photo below of our niece Greta is just beautiful.  I love the sparkle in her eyes and that she is carrying a wristlet with her to Eckert's.  She is only three, but she might need her lipstick or cell phone.  Who knows.

Our niece Harper is so unbelievably cute that I just want to kiss her chubby little cheeks over and over again.  In this photo, she was just mastering the art of sitting up independently and I think that she started to tip over a bit . . .:)  Good catch, Karen.  

Since I'm always the one taking the pictures, I don't get the opportunity to be in many of them.  So I appreciate these shots (thanks TJ for taking these).  You can tell that my boys are crabby and not really interested in this, but mommy subjects them to it anyway.  I'm mean like that.  

Our niece Willa is such a pretty little girl (I am in LOVE with her purple accessories).  It is very attractive how the Stirnaman family coordinated nicely in their purple colors for our day at Eckert's (well, everyone but Mark!)

Goodnight to all!