Never forget

3 years ago tomorrow, we were looking at an ultrasound that showed that our baby had no heartbeat. It was a devastating end to my first pregnancy. I never expected to be one of the many who experiences a miscarriage, but life doesn't always go as expected. I feel like my miscarriage was the beginning of a dark season of life for me. A season I would not want to go back to, but nonetheless caused much growth in my life. My perspective was changed. I saw any future pregnancies as a God-given gift, not a right. Kids are truly a blessing from the Lord. Even though raising kids is difficult (I would venture to say it is the toughest job out there), and sometimes it's easy to get bogged down by the nitty gritty, mundane life of changing endless diapers, listening to crying/screaming, nursing/cutting food, this time of year serves as a reminder of how THANKFUL I am that God would see fit to bless us with two wonderful children.

The joy of children far outweighs the difficult. The joy of having your child wrap their arms around your neck in a hug, or hearing a child giggle, or having your baby's face light up when they see your face, or getting to see the world anew through the eyes of a child. I'm so thankful for these daily joys. But I never want to forget our very first baby. And I never want to forget all that God taught me through those dark days.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22

3 Months Old

Our sweet little man is 3 months old! As he reached this 3 month mark, I was reminded of how fun this age is. He is becoming so much more responsive, he's generally very happy, and he is sleeping so much better. More sleep=a happier mommy. Here are some things I don't want to forget.

• He can squeeze into several 0-3 month sleepers (mainly because I hate to buy new ones with the weather getting nicer), but he generally wears 3-6 month clothes.
• He started wearing size 3 diapers right after he turned 3 months old.
• He is still eating every 3 hours during the day, and he will take 4 ounces from a bottle when I'm at work.
• He still has his last feeding around 10 then will sleep usually until somewhere between 6 and 7. He has his exceptions (today he slept until 7:30 and yesterday he woke up at 5), but I am SO happy he is sleeping better. Now if E would quit waking up in the middle of the night. If it's not one, it's the other.

• He still does his eat/play/sleep routine, but he is definitely not as good of a napper as Elliott. Also, he has reached that point where he has a difficult time sleeping in his bouncer/car seat. He needs quiet to sleep.
• He has such a laid back personality. He spends lots of time in his bouncer just looking around. So precious! He has really started liking the little animals on his bouncer, particularly the green one.
• He loves to smile and will just about smile at anyone (very different from Miss E).
• He has a chronic stuffy nose. I'm not a fan. I'm beginning to wonder if he has allergies like his mommy.

• He rarely cries...only if he is really tired.
• He seems to like bath time and he likes to kick his legs like crazy.
• He loves to watch his big sister. He thinks she is the coolest.
• He has started laughing more. So stinking cute!

I truly cannot get enough of his smiles!! He warms my heart on a daily basis and we're so thankful the Lord blessed us with him!

I wanted to throw this picture in just because. Miss E wearing her first, big girl pony tail. She's getting so big!

Finally...I'm back.

Wow. It's hard to believe a month has almost passed since I last posted. A month. Craziness. In my defense, it has been a busy month. I started back to work when Mason was 9 weeks old, and even though I'm only working part time, it definitely has made my free time even MORE limited. Imagine that. Also, having two is most definitely more work. I love it, but I feel like my hands are almost always full, which means less time to blog. Hopefully I will get better. No promises. :)

Last week, we had some dear friends visit us from Oklahoma. You would think having 8 people crammed into a 2 bedroom house with only 1 bathroom would be stressful, but it was amazing! We had so much fun showing them around and we were so sad to see them go. Here are a few pictures from our week together.

Feeding the ducks on campus.

Sweet bedtime reading with the boys. Mason's loving the story. :)

Fun at St. Joseph which is a beach town on Lake Michigan. The water was FREEZING but the kids LOVED it! It's still hard for me to believe we live this close to white sandy beaches but it's not at the ocean.

E was disgustingly wet and sandy. It was all fun and games until it was time to take off her wet clothes (we don't have photos to document that "fun").

Love this girl and her adventurous spirit.

My sweet sweet friend. So refreshing to my soul.

Eating lemons at the pizza place. Her face says it all.

Family pic before pizza...love my squinty eyes.

The little man. He's getting so big! 3 months today.

We had some delicious pizza at a restaurant overlooking the beach.

We played some fun card games together. This was our "action" shot. I know...we're dorks. I especially love Stuart and Amy's reflective pants.

Lattes and walk around campus for old times sake...just a different campus.

We celebrated all the birthdays we missed while apart. Gotta love some yummy ice cream cake. We decided to make this a tradition every time we come back together.

Elliott LOVED hanging out with the boys. It was like having constant entertainment with some supervision. Amazing. The only negative is she tried to do everything they did...climbing, jumping, etc. Thankfully we didn't get any major injuries.

We also spent several hours in Chicago when we were taking them to the airport but the pictures are all on my phone, which I have not downloaded yet. It was so fun having them here, and we can't wait to see them again! Thanks for visiting us!