Reminder: Boys Will Be Men

I read the following from the blog of our Pastor's brother-in-law, Mark Beeson: 

Maybe you've heard someone say, "Boys will be boys," but the truth is quite different. Boys won't be boys; boys will be men. Though Noah is going to be 12 years old next week, he's going to be a man of principle. You can see the future when you watch a young man for a while. I see Noah's potential and it's full of promise. I know his life will be honorable later because he lives with honor now.
 - Living with honor always honors God. Always has. Always will.
- Having faith in God always helps. Always has. Always will.
- Loving through thick and thin always adds value. Always has. Always will.
- Prayer changes things. Always has. Always will.
- Big brothers (like Noah) who live with honor and respect, always make their mothers pleased, always make their fathers proud, always give their little sisters (like Ava) someone to admire, and they never bring shame on their families.

The Noah he references is Ava's brother, not our Noah but the same message applies to him and I don't want to lose these bullet points - I just love them!

Wordless Wednesday - "Dreaming of Fall"

 

Or at least our annual fall trip to Boston...

7 DAY SERVE - Day 7

Today was the last day of our 7 Day Serve challenge and I had to think of something we could do without leaving the house.  I wanted to make sure that I involved Noah so it made coming up with something we could do to serve together a tad of  challenge. 

My first thought was to have him go through his toys to pick some out to donate but we had recently done that so that option was out the window.  Then, I remembered that I had been meaning to go through his closest and remove clothing he had outgrown for donation.  I had gone through his dresser drawers earlier this month and brought anything he had outgrown into a colleague who has a younger son.  She was so grateful and I was so happy to see someone else benefit from my awful shopping habit!  So, Noah and I went through all of the clothes in his closet and picked out lots of clothing he had outgrown for my friend's son.  The timing was perfect as we had just visited with this colleague and her family on Saturday so Noah knew exactly who was going to benefit from receiving his clothes!

I came to the realization that I should probably buy some stock in Gap...or stop shopping!  I'm so excited to give the bag of clothes to my colleague!

miscellany monday

Én - Every time I need to order photocards or invitations, I always drool over tiny prints but never want to pay so much and end up at Costco or Walmart. Yesterday, I caved and placed an order for Noah's birthday next month. I am so excited for the order to come in next week!

To - I need to think of a good activity for our 7 Day Serve today.  It's the last day (well, at least the last day that I chronicle it on the blog!) so I'd like to end it with a bang but Mondays are tough! Think, think, think!


Tre - I have so many things that I'd like to blog about but can't seem to find the time to do it. I am hoping to be able to catch up this week but it's not looking promising! Summertime is supposed to be relaxing...why do I feel completely over-scheduled?!  Oh wait, it's because I am!  Having the last week off from work only seems to have set me behind further.  Ahhhh!


Fire - This week might just be the week that our pool is finished!!!  I have only been waiting for this day for 7 years and 3 months (but who's counting?).  We built the house intending to add a pool when we were done having kids and said kids could swim.  That day is here and I am so excited for the kids to have this luxury in their backyard!


Fem - You can buy an 8" cookie cake from Publix for $7.49 and it is the perfect amount of dessert for a small get together! I didn't want Noelle to go without a cake on her actual birthday so I went to order her a small cookie cake and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get one that small and it was so cheap!  It was totally perfect for her and I will definitely be ordering that again for small celebrations!


Seks - I would really like to go to Hawaii next year to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. This would have to be a vacation with kids though because I'm not the type that would be able to go that far without kids in tow. The thought of the kids on that long of a flight scares me though! And it's just so darn expensive :( I'll keep dreaming about it for now and we'll see as it gets closer to next year!

Syv - I made Noelle "Minnie Mouse" A-B-C flash cards this past weekend using my new Mickey Font Cricut cartridge. The final product makes it look like it was an easy process but boy was it laborious!  I'm talking like 5 hours of work!  I am so happy with how they turned out though so I suppose it was worth it.  I really want to make a set for my next door neighbor's daughter who has a birthday tomorrow but there is no way that's happening!

7 DAY SERVE - Day 6

It was super easy to find something to do as part of our 7 Day Serve commitment today!  We felt like God lobbed one to us as we hadn't made any plans yet for today!

We were out really late Saturday night visiting with friends and didn't wake up in time to get to church so we watched the service over the internet (which isn't really the same and definitely not good for the kids because they miss their Sunday School classes but it's nice to have this option on days like today!).  This meant that we had some "free" time this morning and decided to pay a visit to Nana's pool to beat the extreme heat.

On our way home, we saw this:

Unfortunately, we had no cash on us but we are so blessed to have Nana close by which means that we didn't have to go too far to run home and grab some cash!

We decided it would be fun and a nice reward for the kids' hard work in this extreme heat to give them a little extra for their hard work.  They weren't exactly in a high-traffic area so hopefully this helped bring the day's sales up and make it worth their effort :)

I think this was my favorite day so far! 

7 DAY SERVE - Day 5

This morning I got a text from a friend/colleague asking if the kids and I had any plans for our Saturday.  Both of our husbands work unconventional work schedules so we are often able to get together on Saturdays.  We have worked together since before either of us had children and, as luck would have it, our sons are 3 weeks apart and our daughters are 2 months apart.  How cool is that?!  The kids play so well together and I really enjoy her company.

This friend happens to be dealing with a few situations right now that are causing her a lot of stress and I knew right away that I wanted to do something for her as part of our 7 Day Serve commitment.  So, the kids and I took her and her little ones out to lunch and then came back to our house for four hours of straight play!  They had so much fun and I still haven't fully-recovered the house! 

These two might as well be twins:

The girls were trying hard to keep up with the boys but just kept getting in the way!

Without saying anything about what his friend's mom is going through, Noah and I talked about how it's important to maintain close friendships and do nice things for our friends like taking them out to lunch and inviting them over for playtime.  I don't think he cared much the lesson here...it was all about the fun for him!

7 DAY SERVE - Day 4

Today we chose to give a little something to our garbage collectors.  I really don't know how these guys do their job in this extreme heat but I am grateful that they do!  When 7 Day Serve was introduced to us, this was one of the first things I thought of because these are people who are often overlooked but provide an invaluable service. 

I didn't want to write "garbage man" of something to that extent so I asked Noah what another name for garbage man or garbage collector.  Why "community helper" of course!  Never underestimate kids!

I didn't want to take a picture of the kids giving the giftcards to the "community helpers" so I had them pose while we were taking the trash out :)

We waited...and waited...and waited for them to arrive!  They are usually here by the crack of dawn but didn't come until 10:30 this morning.  We were inside by then and had to come running out.  I was able to snap a quick picture of Noah running to give them their little gifts.  Notice the lack of shoes :)

This was almost a fail!  The guy obviously wasn't expecting a gift and when Noah handed them to him he chucked them into the trash compressor!  Oops!  I went running out and explained that they were for him and he was able to retrieve them before they were crushed.  He was totally shocked and this just made my day!  It's proof that little things can make someone's day :) 

7 DAY SERVE - Day 3

We had a really busy day today!  It was both kindergarten assessment day and Noelle's birthday.  We packed in a lot of fun today but it meant that we didn't have any time to prepare anything grand for our 7 Day Serve commitment.  Daddy came up with a great idea while we were at Olive Garden for Noelle's birthday dinner, though!  He suggested we leave a generous tip for our waitress.  Awesome idea!

I, of course, wanted a picture for my own documentation sake but didn't want to make a big deal out of the tip in front of the waitress so before we got the bill I asked if she would mind taking a picture with the kids.  I thought she'd think I was a little strange for the request but she was happy to do it!

We got to talking to her and learned that she had a 3 1/2 year old and almost 2 year old.  I am always really sensitive to mommies who are away from their babies.  I work a full-time job and know some of the feelings I face when I'm working instead of at home with the kids so it hits close to home.  It felt extra good to be able to be generous with a fellow working mommy!  She also found out it was Noelle's 2nd birthday and brought her a special treat :)

  

We got the bill, added a larger-than-normal tip and hurried out as to not make a big deal out of it...

With two little ones in tow, we didn't get out the door as quickly as we would have liked!  She came running out and thanked us profusely, telling us it was not necessary.  It felt really awesome to bless her in this way!  We hope it made her night and she felt God's hand in it!

TWO!!

Two years ago today, God gave us one of the most precious gifts one can receive during a lifetime:

                    Our daughter, Noelle

Two year stats:

Weight: 23 pounds (up from 18 pounds at a year) - a lightweight!

Height: likely still in the 50th percentile but we'll find out for sure next week!

Favorite foods: pineapple, pizza, fruit snacks, broccoli, num-a-na (candy!), strawberries, mini-wheats (weirdo...just like Daddy!), Publix chocolate chip cookies

Favorite drinks: "Dada's baba"...aka Coke, Snapple Green Tea or Cran Pomegranate Juice

Allergies: Dogs :( and Milk (although we think this is being outgrown!)

Nickname: Sycee (compliments of Daddy but now EVERYONE calls you by it!)

My sweet Sycee,

These two years have flown by and that scares me to death!  Make it stop!  While I love watching you develop, I am not ready to share you with the 'outside world'!  I have a hard enough time leaving you in the church nursery (not that you make it any easier by melting down the minute you see your classroom!).  Raising you feels SO much different than Noah.  I am over-protective by nature and the minute you came into this world my over-protectiveness went into high gear! 

You are spirited, just like me!  I love it to bits but it frustrates me to no end!  You hit and bite when you don't get your way and that is new territory for us!  Your brother didn't go through that phase but we now get what 'terrible twos' are all about!  I try so hard to not laugh at you when you do it but it is very hard for me.  You are too cute!  Daddy likes to call it my 'tick' when I have to look away because I don't want you to see me laughing.  Time out works in the moment for you but it doesn't make you not do something again.  You now apologize on your way to time out and that melts my heart!  I am praying that we get through this phase quickly and you become a mild-mannered little girl.

You love your Daddy deeply and that melts my heart!  I hand-picked your Daddy just so you and Noah could have what I had growing up and it's working out perfectly!  I love seeing the excitement in your eyes when you hear the garage door go up and know Daddy is about to walk through the door. 

I adore watching you learn from your brother every day.  He is quite the teacher and you hang on every word he says.  He is teaching you so much and you are soaking it all up!  You guys love to play with Trios, superheroes and Nerf guns together.  You are the first person Noah wants to see in the morning and he is usually the one to greet you by climbing into your crib.  If Daddy or I get to you first, the first word out of your mouth is "brother?".

You love swimming and officially learned how to swim around 20 months.  You are now quite the little fish, although you despise swimming lessons.  You will happily swim forever unless you're at your swimming lesson in which case you'll scream incessantly.  You also love Minnie Mouse, DVDs (Toy Story 1 & 2 are your favorites!) and books!

You are still nursing at night although Mommy is ready to cut you off :)  If you didn't have a milk allergy, you probably would have weaned by now!  Mommy feels bad for you, though!  We'll check the level of your milk allergy next week and if it's significantly down, you'll officially be done with Mommy's Milk! 

I am so proud of how much you are learning.  You are our little sponge and each day you surprise us with something else you have learned!  You can "fill in the blanks" when we sing the alphabet and pause on a letter and "fill in the blanks" when we pray the Lord's Prayer.  You LOVE saying your bedtime prayers but insist upon brother saying them with you.  I love how you fold your hands to pray - it is absolutely precious!  You already recognize many letters and have started counting 1, 2, 3.  I think you have officially caught the learning bug just like your big brother!

We are SO excited to see what plans God has for you, baby girl!  You are precious in His sight and we pray that you use the gifts He has given you to His glory.  We love you eternally!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Noelle Kristina!

Love,

Mommy (& Daddy)

7 DAY SERVE - Day 2

Today was a crazy busy day for me and I was stuck at home most of the day so I was trying to rack my brain and come up with something we could do for Day 2 of our 7 Day Serve.  It would have been easier if it were just me doing the "serving" but I'm focused on involving the kids in this challenge so it was a bit harder to think of something today.  I had to run to Publix...something we do on an almost daily basis...and the kids were already begging for cookies at the mere mention of Publix.  Bingo!  We'll write a thank you card to the Publix Bakery Staff for all of the delicious treats they give us! 

Our Publix Bakery really goes above and beyond.  They are always super-friendly and take the time to interact with the kids beyond just handing them a cookie.  Just recently, they starting offering a banana, yogurt, string cheese or popcorn as an alternative to a cookie.  This makes me so happy!  Noah is happy with a yogurt most days but Noelle always wants a "num-a-na" (cookie or anything sweet for that matter!) and it's a quick little battle to get her to settle for a banana instead of a cookie. 

So, we wrote a quick "thank you" to some of our favorite people and went on our daily errand with a dual purpose :)

There was a little disagreement over who was going to actually hand the card over so the usual happy faces don't look too happy!

Brother won out when Noelle got distracted by the cookies!

This worked out perfectly!!  The person working today is one of my favorite people (doesn't he look just like "Joey" (Dave Coulier) from Full House?!) and made a huge deal out of getting a thank you card.  Noah was so happy with his response!  And, my little bugger snagged a cookie AND a banana today...lucky little girl!

Wordless Wednesday - "Bounce House"

  

7 DAY SERVE - Day 1

Today we shopped for school supplies and backpacks for the annual backpack drive at our church as part of the 7 Day Serve challenge we're participating in.  We put together one backpack for a girl and let Noelle pick it out and one backpack for a boy that Noah had "on hand" but agreed to donate. 

Momentous Day

First off, I'm trying to figure out how this...

...is old enough to start kindergarten next month.

Seriously?

It is surreal.  I know he's ready in my heart but I can't wrap myself around the fact that this time is already here and we're entering a new phase.

Yesterday, we completed Noah's registration for kindergarten.  It's something I've been meaning to do but kept putting off and putting off.  Some might call that denial :)  The "assessment day" (not sure what that's entirely about but I can surmise) is on Thursday so it was now or never. 

I still have a month to change my mind.  Kidding.  Kind of...

7 DAY SERVE

Our church rocks!  Seriously, I can't say enough about it and I am eternally grateful that we "gave it a chance" back in 2003.  I clearly remember my SIL saying to my husband "come on, Bob, you have to check it out...there's lots of singing, a little bit of dancing...just give it a chance, you'll love it".  That description, based on its location, shouldn't have gotten Rob through the doors but we gave it a chance, went with Aunt Ne-Ne and have been part of Northland ever since. 

The "challenge" that our pastor gave us today is awesome!  I've been thinking about what random acts of kindness we could do with the kids and there are some great suggestions below.  We were given cards with the below info on them:

I'm really excited about this challenge and can't wait to start it tomorrow!  Aside from bestowing kindness on others, I'm excited to use it as a tool to show N&N practical ways to serve every day!

miscellany monday

Én - Today just may be the day that Noah gets registered for kindergarten!  I don't know if it's denial, hectic schedules or laziness that has kept me from registering him but seeing that the "assessment day" is only a few days away, it's time to get into gear if he's going to go to kindergarten this year.


To - Why can't cherries be in season all the time?  And why do they have to have pits?  And why does organic fruit have to cost so darn much?  I was so happy to see cherries @ $3.99/lb this week at Publix.  What a nice break in price considering they were $6.99/lb last week!  I need to invest in a cherry pitter (not quite sure how one works but it has to be better than the Mommy cherry pitter which goes something like this:  me biting a cherry strategically in half, giving a kid the half without the pit and eating the other half myself...repeated dozens of times in a row).


Tre - Rob's hibachi cooking lesson is this week and then he gets to cook for us on Sunday!  I am soooo excited for this!  We are going to have such a good time.


Fire - How pathetic is it that I am super excited to see The Bachelorette tonight?!  I just hope she keeps Chris around because he seems like the most sincere and I just loved how close he was to his brothers' wives.  That says a lot to me!


Fem - I haven't made krumkake in a long time!  I think I'll make it today to bring to my MIL's house for tea.  Tea?  Yes, kind of random but that's what we're having after dinner tonight.  I only heard the last part of the conversation when plans were being made for tea so I'm not sure how that originated but I'll go with it.  The krumkake iron that I bought last year rocks!  It did take time to get aquainted with and we did start a few little fires (okay, maybe one larger fire than the others!) but now that I have it figured out we are good to go!


Seks - Publix cookie cakes rock!  So do Publix cakes in general!  I need to throw the leftover cake in the trash so it doesn't make its way onto my thighs.


Syv - Noah is like Ralph Macchio when he's sleeping!  I have been karate chopped and kicked more times than I can count laying next to him while typing this post out.  The bruises are worth it :)  I just don't know how he sleeps so soundly when he move so much!

Visit from Uncle Kyle & Aunt "Din-Din" - Part 1

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Erin arrived in town late Thursday night so we didn't get to see them until Friday.  Noah was just finishing up a week of camp and we didn't want him to miss the last day so I told him Uncle Kyle sleeps really late and that satisfied him enough to choose camp over Uncle Kyle.  There isn't much that Noah will choose over Uncle Kyle so it makes me feel good about the camp that we chose for him!

Noelle got to spend the morning playing with all of the pups at Grams' house!  Poor thing still seems to be way allergic to Uncle Kyle and Aunt Erin's dog, Penny, but hopefully she'll grow out of it.  She loved taking them for a walk and chose "Hafie" (Alfie) as her walking partner.

We celebrated Uncle Kyle's birthday at Bonefish on Friday night.  There was an hour wait to sit inside but no wait to sit outside so we went with the obvious choice when you have little ones!  It was almost an ill-fated decision because there was a nasty storm brewing but it held off and we had a really enjoyable time sitting outside (in the middle of the summer...in Florida...).  There was a rainbow in the distance for the entire meal which was awesome to look at!

A family pic before Daddy arrived:

The kids loved coloring with Uncle Kyle (who can be much like a child which probably has something to do with their affinity for him):

My brother and sister-in-law:

The "E-N" family pic (I can't help but get really sad when I see this picture because it's missing my Daddy and sister but I really need to focus on the fact that I still have my mom and brother instead of that!):

Yay!  Daddy showed up!  He had two little monkeys thrilled to see him!

The face says it all!  This girl LOVES her Daddy (and that thrills me to no end!):

And this boy thinks Daddy hung the moon:

A trip to the Village wouldn't be a trip to the Village without a stop at Barnes & Noble.  Noah loved having Uncle Kyle along for a trip to one of his favorite stores:

The rest of the night was spent showcasing Noah's gaming skills against the master gamer:

Our little man has become quite the Wii master.  I don't think Uncle Kyle was prepared to be beat (more like pulverized) by his four-year-old nephew.  The precision with which he Wii bowls in crazy!

He did it!  He's been talking about beating Uncle Kyle in Wii bowling for weeks.  He was SO proud of himself!

He went on to win "gold" in target tennis.  It was a dream come true kind of night for this four-year-old!

Part 2: Donut shop, library, pups
Part 3: Noelle's family birthday party