February Birthday Bash

On Josh's side of the family, we now have 6 birthdays in February: Ethan, Laura, Cody, me, Logan, and Danica. (We also celebrated dad's birthday too since the party was so close to his, Mar 13) We decided it would be better on everyone's schedules to have ONE big party. Since Logan was due in mid February we thought it best to not plan the party until we knew exactly when he was coming. So as luck would have it, he was born on MY birthday (yeah!) but we then had to wait a couple of weeks for Shawna and Logan to recover before we could party it out! SO...first chance in March we got we took! It was alot of fun and everyone had a great time!

Ethan 4 yrs

Logan 3 weeks

Danica 2 yrs

Sweet Avery

Look at those legs!! Don't you just want to squeeze them??

OH SO CUTE!

Bragging On Ethan...

So I have to brag a little about my smarty pants. I have to say that much is credited to the PBS show Dinosaur Train, where he learns crazy stuff about dinosaurs. Anyway, I don't know if anyone saw, but the sky was absolutely beautiful tonight as the sun was going down. Well on our way to church Ethan said the following:

Ethan: "Mommy, look at the beautiful sky!"

Me: "Yes that is beautiful!"

Ethan: "How does it do that?"

I didn't even get to answer when he explained: "I think that at nighttime God brings out the beautiful sky. (Pause) That's just a hypothesis!"

And yes, he does know what hypothesis means...Oh he cracks me up sometimes!

God Is Love

So I have decided to use this blog not only for something to look back on about my kids but for me as well. I am going to start using it sort of like a journal...writing about things I am struggling with, either with the kids or personally or amazing things that might have happened in my life. I know some of you do this already and I'm jumping on the bandwagon!

Today my heart was spoken to, not in an "eye-opening" way (because I already knew these things about myself) but in a convicting way. At LBC today the lesson was on God's amazing love. WOW, Kayren did a fantastic job delievering the message God wanted us hear! Thank you so much Kayren!!! Many things she talked about rang true in my own life. I too have major struggles with anger, which leads to yelling, which is all coming from impatience. I was reading Kayren's blog and man does she just write like it is! We are all struggling mommies and wives, and we are all (at least I hope) striving to be SOLD OUT for Christ.

So as a warning, sometimes I might blog just because sometimes it feels good to get the conversations I have in my head out. Don't feel like you need to read it but hopefully it can be encouraging to some to feel God's love and strength through my words. Not by a long shot will I get it right all the time and sometimes my words might not even make sense to you, and that's ok, but hey we are all sinners battleing Satan. But thanks be to God who covers us all with his grace because of Jesus' blood!!


Ephesians 3:17-19 "..so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that this love surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

I ask that you pray for me as I openly (which is very hard for me) struggle, to grasp God's love for me, and to really live (not just telling myself I will) not for myself, but for God and to bring God glory each and every day.

The Rodeo

My aunt called me and said she had tickets to the fairgrounds at the Rodeo for Saturday and wanted to know if I was interested. I was wanting to take the boys, but not really wanting to pay for our tickets. This was perfect! Unfortunetly, Josh was going to be hunting that day so I had to find someone to go with me so I didn't have to battle both boys by myself. Since the boys spent the night with Grammy and Papa on Friday, it worked out great that said they would go. We had a great time and the boys were very good, for the most part. We didn't see many animals but the boys had fun anyway. Next year, since we kinda know what to look for now, I think it will be an even better experience! Now to only get daddy to go with us....

Petting zoo

"Yeehaw!"

Ethan fishing in the kid's corner

Ethan and Papa on the ferris wheel

Me and Ethan at the top

Welcome Logan!

What an awesome day...Logan Hartman joined our family today! He was born around 12:40 pm weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces. He is beautiful! Shawna said the delivery was great and her doctor was fantastic. Cody even got to catch him as he was coming out! So cool!!! Danica welcomed her brother with open arms, even crying when someone would hold him! She is going to be a great big sister! And to top it off...Logan and I share our birthdays! I got a priceless gift today!

Scavengers

Isaiah has this habit of wanting to share Josh's breakfast with him...even after he's has already eaten sometimes! Most of the mornings its cereal but today Josh had toast and it wasn't just Isaiah who wanted to share, but Ethan too! And actually Makenzie (the dog) looked like she wanted a taste too! :)

Bye-Bye Balloons

After the party was over and people started to leave I realized that I had forgotten to hand out balloons as part of the party favors to the kids. So we let the kids each have a couple and they let them go up to the sky. That was pretty cool...but not as cool as Jennifer's effects on the pictures!

Time for a tire swing ride!

Happy birthday my sweet boy! I hope this day made you feel special, just like the wonderful, special boy you are!

Ethan's 4th Birthday

I can't believe its that time again...yep, Ethan has turned 4! Its hard to realize that he is growing up so fast!
So I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday party and first he was all about the cars, big suprise! But then out of the blue he wanted Spiderman! WHAT? I didn't think he knew who Spiderman was! I'll admit I really didn't want to do a Spiderman party, so I asked him again and gave him options: cars, Spiderman, or dinosaurs (which has been another favorite thanks to Dinosaur Train). He decided that dinosaurs was the way to go...and I was pretty excited about it!
3 weeks til the party I started planning. I wanted to have more things to do this year other than food, cake, and presents. Josh told me that we could put some effort and fun into the party as long as it wasn't expensive and I didn't get stressed out. I agreed...and off to planning I went. I asked many different people to help with certain things and that was huge! Thanks to all who helped make this party so wonderful!

A HUGE thank you to my wonderful husband who drew Buddy from Dinosaur Train and Shawna for painting him! He turned out just fantastic!

We had a dinosaur dig where the kiddos could search for little dinos hidden in the sand..I really liked this idea!
We also had a dino walk and fishing booth where the kids could win little prizes.

And of course Ethan got more presents than we needed or could ask for! Thank you to all for loving my Ethan so much! My sweet neice Avery...so beautiful!
We had all the kids gather around the table with their dinosaur masks to sing "Happy Birthday" to Ethan.
A HUGE thank you to Jennifer who decorated Ethan's awesome cake! It turned out just as I pictured! I love you!
Hooray for the birthday boy!