Bday Blast (Part 2)

Today is Hunter's actual birthday.  I could write a whole blog post about how amazing he is!  I will tell you that four years ago today, my whole life changed. He is my first born baby, and has taught me more about love, patience and kindness than I could have ever imagined. The grace of God became so real to me the first time I held my sweet boy. I am continually amazed that He chose me to mother this child, what an unbelievable privilege.

Ok, enough sappyness...we had a little change in plans today.  We had planned to go with our life group to Silver Dollar City. We were all very excited about it, but it is raining (a lot) today.  While it is awesome that it is raining (it has been a drought and all) I am a little annoyed that our plans were disrupted.  Well...we decided to just move the party to the best indoor place we could think of...The Discovery Center!!!  Everybody except one family could make it for our little change in venue, so we were off!

The discovery center actually does birthday parties, where you rent out a room and all that, but we obviously didnt plan ahead or anything, but they were SO accomodating! We ordered pizza and ate our cupcakes (that I baked right before we left the house this morning) and really had a great time out in their lobby.

So, here are some of the photos. I realize this is a lot of photos, but you should see how many I took...geesh!  We did take a photo of the whole group, but it is on someone else's camera, so you will have to do without :)

Most of the kiddos posed for a picture in the house.

Sweet girls.

putting on a show in costumes.

birthday boy putting on a little puppet show.

static electricity. LOL!!!

So funny!!

my boys love this...its the Dinosaur Dig!

brotherly love

We ordered a pizza, and ate it in the lobby, followed by some cupcakes I threw together at the last minute.

Here are the cupcakes...they were not exactly nicely decorated, and I didnt even remember to bring a candle for Hunter to blow out, so he just pretented.  He didnt care, but I felt a little silly. Nice work, Mom.

Our party didn't exactly go as planned, but it was sure fun! We had a great time! Thank you for all the birthday wishes for our sweet boy!

Spiderman's Bday Blast (Part 1)

Hunter’s bday is tomorrow, so we had his family birthday party last night. We decided this year to have a big family party at home before his birthday, then to have a little fun adventure on his actual birthday (more about that after it actually happens…stay tuned). Hunter is very into Spiderman right now. Like OBSESSED! You will be able to tell that from his birthday stuff. He got quite a few presents for his birthday, but really only noticed one, the “real” Spiderman costume, complete with muscles.

His cake was from Price Cutter. I ordered it over the phone, and was a little nervous, since I know they do great cakes, and would have liked to go in person and talk with the baker to see what her ideas were. I didn’t have time for that, so I just called and said I wanted a round Spiderman cake. I was SO PLEASED with how it turned out. It was really really cool. When I brought it home, Hunter was over the moon! He kept saying “Thank you for my Spiderman cake Mommy, I really love it!” That child is just such a joy, he is very polite (unless he is in a bad mood) and grateful. He really amazes me sometimes.

Side note: this morning, he asked me "Mommy, what is the internet?"  I had no idea what to tell him. Random, but just thought I would share.


So, without further adieu, some photos from our awesome party:

our little family with J's grandpa, step grandma and great-grandma. So that would be my boys' great-great-grandma Dorothy.  She deserves all those greats, for sure!

J-Dogg with his Momma and Grandpa (different grandpa, obviously).

Hunter's Spiderman cake

Daddy tried to light the candles with a blow torch. Fail.

So Grampy came around with a more reasonable approach.

My boys, Benny watched closely when Hunter was opening presents, he was taking mental notes, I think. "Hmm....I am gonna be REALLY good at this by Christmas time."

I wish I could express to you how excited this child was when he got his Spiderman costume.  This smile might do it a little bit of justice, but it was absolutely awesome.

  

He had to show us how he spins his web.  For the record, Hunter loves wearing the mask, but I dont like it at all, I much prefer his sweet face.

Adi and Benny were really excited about the new workbench.  I still dont think Hunter has noticed it.

My boys are so very loved, and I love that!

Exercise Update

I have been keeping up with my exercise challenge MOSTLY. I have done either the 30 day shred or run 2 miles every day, except for the days I haven’t. Just a little reflection here, but I want to encourage anyone who is trying to incorporate exercise into their life that you not feel discouraged by days when you just can’t seem to make it happen. Some days I have things going on that prevent me from exercise. Those days happen. I am not beating myself up about them, I am just keeping in mind that there is always tomorrow. I do feel much better on the days I work out, and am stronger, and even losing a little bit of weight. As I have mentioned before, my main motivation is the ENERGY factor, and in that arena I am definitely seeing results. So, work out when you can…push yourself…but also don’t beat yourself up, it doesn’t do anybody any good. I am just going to continue to be honest about my workouts on here, and hope that it encourages somebody (maybe just me when I look back on it later).

Day 17 (Tues) – Took advantage of ridiculously awesome weather, and the fact I was off work, and went for a nice run. It was fab.

Day 18 (Wednesday) – took the day off from the workout. I had a hard time sleeping the night before, and was just really exhausted. It was one of those days that I had to focus on just making it through the day, which I did…so that is an accomplishment.

Day 19 (Thursday) – Ran again, beautiful day.

Day 20 (Friday) – I did Level 2 Shred with 5 pound weights, and didn't modify any moves. It was HAAAARD, but there is no way I could have done it a week ago. Getting stronger FO SHO!

By the way...you should here Benny say "exercise" he says it when he sees my tennis shoes and it is a-flipping-dorable!

Haitian Momma

My mom is en route to Haiti to stay for 6 weeks this time. To put it simply (and it isn’t simple) she resigned from her position at our church as an associate pastor, and is now going to be serving sort of as a missionary, in a consultant role for Pwoje Espwa. Obviously, I have mixed feelings about her leaving. I am inspired by her obedience to the voice of God, who is sending her. I am in love with the place she is going, Espwa means “Hope” and it is a place that embodies its name. However, I am a bit selfish, and I really like having her here with me, loving on my boys and just hanging out. SO…I’m sad, excited, and praying. Join me, won’t you?

If you want more information about this whole thing, you can check out three different websites:

- Lori Haiti: this is mom’s blog that she just started, and will be updating during her trip. Comment on it, so she can feel the love.

- Free the Kids: this is the website for the organization she is working with. There is a blog there kept by Father Marc, the founder of the Project. He is pretty awesome.

- Haiti Blog: this is the blog that has been updated throughout the many trips to Haiti over the past couple years. It is kept by travellers (mostly from our church, but not all) who have traveled to Espwa with mom, and has a very unique perspective on the Project. I could be so bold as to tell you that everyone who has set foot on that place has left changed. It is true.

the Fair

Some members of Justin's family are from a charming small town in central MO called Cole Camp.  It is a really great little place where he grew up going for hunting and family get-togethers.  Every Fall, the fair comes to town. It is a very small fair with just a few rides for little kids, and a parade, and a beer garden with german dancing and bands.  Seriously, it is so much fun!

We took Hunter when he was about 1 year old, but Ben has never been, so this was our first real visit to the fair with the boys. What a fun day!!

Just as an aside, I have never taken my kids to the big fair in Springfield, and don't plan to in the near future.  I don't really like fairs that much, unless it is of the very small town variety. Just my opinion.

They boys enjoyed the games with the guns.  Daddy helped.

They each got to choose prizes.  Benny picked the purple bear and
Hunter picked a fish that looks sort of like Nemo.  Justin was trying to
talk Ben into a more manly prize, but he is very secure in his
masculinity and would like to go with the purple bear, thankyouverymuch.

Sweet boy on the swing ride.

  

...and another sweet boy on the swing ride.

Roller Coaster!!

Probably the highlight of the day was finding Uncle Larry's
American Flags.  Hunter was WAY pumped!

A good time was had by all...see ya later Cole Camp :)

Quick update

I have a lot to blog about, but am currently having some technical difficulties. I'll just quickly update my Shred workouts (it motivates me to know I am accountable to someone, even if that someone is my blog).

Day 13 (Friday): decided to run instead. Ran 2 miles without walking at all. Pretty awesome for not having run in a long time.

Day 14 (Sat): not proud of this, but I have to be honest. I started the workout this morning, but only got about 2 minutes in when the LAZY won out. We had a very busy day planned with a day trip to the Cole Camp fair (pics later) and I was just not motivated.

Day 15 (Sun): 2 mile run. I absolutely LOVE running, especially on a beautiful cool crisp morning. Delightful.

Day 16 (Mon): back on track, got up and did the Level 2 workout.

Even with my little "variation" and "laziness" I am definitely getting results. Not losing weight, because I haven't really changed my eating habits, but I can tell I am so much stronger than I was. In fact, I think tomorrow it is time to upgrade to the 5 lb weights, rather than the 3 pounders.

Full day of good stuff

I am supposed to work 24 hours a week these days, and since Monday was a holiday and I worked 12 hours tues and wed, I realized that I could be off today and tomorrow! I have a couple work things to do, but they can easily be accomplished at home, so yay!

Anyway...I had a SUPER productive day today. Took the boys to daycare, then did some shopping, then came home and painted my office. Yay! Followed by a nice evening at home with my crazy guys. Oh, before all of that I did my shred workout.

Day 11 (wed): back to Level 2, i definitely feel much stronger now. I'm especially enjoying the extra energy. I don't feel tired at all until bedtime.

Day 12: (today) level 2 again. Same thing. I think I need to add a little 1 mile jog on the treadmill afterwards, I'd time allows in the future. If time allows...hmmm.

One more thing: I recently finished a book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and am truly inspired. I would like to do a whole post on what I learned from his story (like I did about Mother Teresa) but need a little more time to process it. So, I'll get back with ya.

Take a look at the office and its new paint job. I posted like a year ago that i wanted to transform this room into a playroom, but instead we moved the boys into the same room for sleeping and made one of the upstairs bedrooms into a playroom. Now I have a nice peaceful place to read, mess around on my computer, work (sometimes), run on the treadmill and basically just get away. The pics don't do it justice, this room is so nice now!