Grateful Acres

...woah, two posts in a row! :) Today I had some sweet moments with the boys God is lending me. Henry is my early riser (early has been transformed-after much diligent...diligentness- from 5:45 to more like 6:30 or occasionally later). I've been making it a point to be up before the boys when possible, but during the morning-sick stage of pregnancy, I've deemed it "not possible", so I've been waking up to little clunking noises through the baby monitor. Henry used to get up and stand in front of the door and cry (since it's dark still...), but as he grows he has started to go for the toy cupboard and pull out bins of motorcycles and race cars. I try to catch him as quickly as I can and depending on the time, either ask him to lay in his bed a little longer or whisk him away to let brother sleep. This morning it was in the window of "lay in his bed a little longer", so I got him tucked back into the soft darkness, and camped out on the floor outside

My day today was uncannily peaceful. I pinched myself ALL day... the boys played quietly with their toys, had only minor "Mommy, he hit me"-ish things, dinner turned out yummy (new recipe that is now top of Hubby's list!), my mom came to visit, sister-in-law and her friend came over for a little while, and did I mention that the boys played quietly with their toys? (ALL DAY!) ...and when I say "uncannily peaceful" I mean that I was not shocked when we encountered a moment of "crazy" this evening :) Josh was at youth group, and I had the boys in the tub before bed.    ...when ALL the smoke detectors went off. This has happened before, once, so I didn't immediately think that the house was burning down. So... I pulled the boys out of the tub, and set about the house pulling all the smoke detectors down. They are the new kind (up to code...) that are all connected to eachother, and all wired to the ceiling, with a battery as backup. Our ceilings are

Sometimes, it feels SO NICE to wrap up some projects :) I've had two projects in-the-works lately, and I was amazed at how complicated they became!  I have managed to turn Christmas cards into quite the production... and after 6 months in our house, Josh and I JUST hung family pictures! I sat on the floor of our soon-to-finally-be-baby-room (currently peaceful project room) this afternoon, stuffing envelopes with photos, cards, newsletters... And just before tucking our boys in for their nap today, Josh and I hung pictures in the upstairs play area. Hooray!!  sneak-peek at our Christmas cards! *photos hung inside these frames are from Caitlin Kristine Photography *photos being sent out inside our cards are from Bri'Anne Elizabeth Photography My aunt passed along a blog to me recently, which inspired the way these are hung. It's easy to spend WAY too much time reading blogs (*wink!*), but this one I loved! Check it out... http://www.brownpaper--packages.co

I have a small victory to share with you:  Let me give some context... I blogged about the loss of children recently, verbally stomping my feet and telling the enemy that I will have no more of it- and that I have chosen my side and refuse to budge. The children God has given me "on loan" are all so different... Jonathan was an easy baby, and is currently a whirl-wind 3 1/2 yr old- he is FULL of energy, curiosity, music, rythm, he is friendly, relational, deep (yes, deep!), always thinking, processing, talking... He knows about God and that Jesus is real, and he knows that his baby sister Evelyn is safe with Jesus. Henry was a difficult baby, and is an easy 2 yr-old!  He adores his  brother and wants to be where he is, he gives AMAZING hugs, likes to be held, likes books, connects quickly with people, is caring, noisy, talkative, fast... and still has his innocence. He likes to pray. Evelyn has changed my life more than anything. Her body was tiny, but her existenc