Weekend with family

I'm so behind on blog posts, but I will slowly try to catch up on them all!

A few weeks ago we took off for Idaho for a 4 day visit with my family.  It had been a few months since we'd seen them so we were excited.

We went shopping, watched movies, ordered Chinese takeout, played with lots of toys, lounged around, took some family pictures, and just enjoyed each other's company.

I always consider it a great visit when Benjamin cries when its time to leave.  He sure loves his Nana, Grandfather and Auntie Amanda :-)

As always, we took too many pictures so here it goes....

We were sad to leave and can't wait to see everyone again at Christmas!

Busy

Life is just really busy.  Good, but busy.  I have so much to post but for now I leave you with my adorable little guy who puts up with his humor seeking family :-)

Election day excitement

We turned on PBS during dinner to watch the coverage of the presidential election.  Benjamin told me that the show was scary.  Which is his way of saying he wanted to watch Robin Hood instead.....clever little guy.

We ate dinner, then Ben grabbed a truck and sat on the couch.  Peter headed to a meeting at church and I finished cleaning for 5 minutes.  It was quiet.  Unusually quiet so I turned around and saw this....

Guess the excitement was all too much for him to handle :-)

I'm pretty sure Benjamin has never fallen asleep on the couch randomly like this. Let alone at 6:00 pm.  Perhaps I will add watching the PBS news to our bedtime routine ?!?!

Our 8th Anniversary

I am nearly a month late in posting this, but I wanted to document it for memory's sake.  On October 8th, Peter and I celebrated 8 years of marriage together.

I am so humbly grateful for the man God chose to be my husband.  Through all the ups and downs that life brings, there is no one I'd rather go through them with.  He is a gift to me and I love him to pieces.  I thank God for blessing our marriage and using it to sanctify us and mold us into His image.

We celebrated the day with a wonderful dinner out at The Point restaurant, looking at fruit trees (how romantic right? ha!) and just talking about our lives, fun memories, and hopes for the future......over Starbucks of course.  Our date nights are so fun and I always look forward to them.

Of course, I forgot to get a picture of us on that night, but we snapped one a few days later....

Happy 8th Anniversary to us!  Love you more each year Peter :-)

What's for dinner?

A million dollars to whoever can guess what we had for dinner on this night.....

Okay, I lied....you don't win a million dollars. 

But I bet the picture made you smile, which is priceless anyway right???  :-)

Trick or Treat

Even though life has been pretty busy lately, we were all still really excited to go trick or treating.  And as a bonus this year, it didn't rain (well, mostly!)  Woohoo!

Introducing Thomas the Tank Engine and one feisty giraffe.....

We went around our culdesac to visit a few neighbors (and hit them up for candy, of course!)  Then we headed over to our friends house to have appetizers with our small group, and trick or treat in their neighborhood with our friends.  We also passed out free hot chocolate and coffee to trick or treaters as a small way to share Christ's love for them.  It was a wonderful idea and our new tradition I think.  We had about 500 visitors which is crazy!

Benjamin was a bit off for most of the night and didn't last long trick or treating.  So needless to say, we were all exhausted when we left around 8:30.  But we had a great time and we, I mean the boys, will enjoy eating their candy the rest of this week.

Keeping it real

Alot of times my posts are full of the wonderful aspects of being a stay at home mom, the funny things our kids do and the "happy" stuff. 

*Now, I love my boys and love being a SAHM and homemaker, but some days its overwhelming*

Today, I'm just consumed with real life.

If I'm being honest there are moments when I feel as though I cannot handle one more minute of toddler talk in the "whine pitch" (moms of toddlers know what I'm referring to). 
Moments where I'm cleaning the floor for the 7th time that day and look up to see my piles of freshly folded clean laundry now being played with as toys on the floor.  Moments where after taking my child to use the potty for 12,000 times in the past hour he still has an accident. 
Moments where I literally convince myself I'm not hungry only because the last thing on earth I want to think about is making dinner. 
Moments where you realize that you rarely leave the house for any other reason than grocery shopping simply because it is like running a marathon to just get out the door.
Moments where all you want to do is drink a cup of coffee fresh out of the pot....without having to reheat it at least 3 times due to interruptions.
Moments where you acknowledge how often you glance at the clock throughout the day calculating how much time is left before daddy comes home.
Moments where you just once want to wake up without immediately having to meet the need of somene else.

This is what my house looks like after finally being able to put my boys down for a nap this afternoon....

dishes to be washed....dishwasher filling up only1/2 hour after I emptied it

 crumbs from lunch, half eaten banana from breakfast, puzzle pieces dumped from the trick or treating Elmo bucket last night

 toys and books in every cranny

more toys and items placed on the desk to be out of Jonah's reach

 



And now Benjamin is sitting in time-out for NOT taking a nap and throwing his sheets all over his room.  And the mess is still there because I could not muster up any energy to do anything for the hour he was upstairs.  In all honesty, my motivation to pick up and finish cleaning the kitchen will be so that Peter doesn't come home to see the identical picture he saw when he left at lunch and wonder what I did all afternoon.

Yes, I know these moments pass.  And I know the good far outweighs the bad.  And I know I'm beyond blessed in my life.  Believe me, I know.  But in keeping in real, right now, I'm in the hard and consuming moments of my role.  I want to look back at this blog journal of mine and remember all the moments of this stage of my life so I'm choosing to keep it real and write it down. 

Off to clean up.....only now it's even more fun since both my boys are awake.  How much longer till daddy comes home???