Happy Feet, Happy Feet, and Popper

Spence and I took the boys to Build A Bear to make a stuffed animal for themselves and also one to give Ellie.  Spencer and I agreed on a price to spend and the boys beelined to the penguin on the wall.  Thankfully, it was on sale that day for the price that we had agreed on and we didn't have to break two hearts.  Both boys chose the new penguin from Happy Feet 2 (but they think it is from the original).  They enjoyed choosing, making and then naming them the exact same thing, Happy Feet!  They also enjoyed stuffing a polar bear for baby sister because polar bears and penguins live together.  Zeke chose to name her bear Popper. 

 Kissing the heart to put in the penguin

 Putting the heart in

 Zeke putting his heart inside

 Zeke wasn't interested in pushing the pedal to stuff his animal, but Ben jumped right in

 Smile, Happy Feet!

 Big squeeze!

 Zeke helped to stuff Ellie's bear once he got used to it

 Both boys really got into cleaning/brushing/washing their animals

 Brush, brush, brush

Even Dad helped

Hiatus

So, life has totally blown up around here.  I am 35 weeks and having contractions off and on everyday.  Spence had unexpected surgery last week.  The surgery has left him with restrictions of not lifting anything over 20 pounds for the next 4-6 weeks.  Oh and yeah we still have two wild and crazy boys.
In full disclosure, we are doing a lot of laying around and movie watching.  We are super thankful for family who took care of our boys for the week that Spence had surgery.  We are also beyond blessed by friends who have come over and brought food.  If anyone is bored and wants to wrestle or be chased by our boys, come on over because Mom and Dad are pretty much out of commission in those departments :)
I have decided to give myself a pass on being super mom.  This means that I am letting some cleaning slide (you won't catch a disease but the house is definitely not up to my normal standards), letting the boys make messes and eat junk that I typically wouldn't.  This also means that I am going to let myself have a break from feeling like I need to blog about our every breath.  The next post we put up will be be announcing when Ellie makes her arrival.  So, as soon as she makes her grand entrance (because my kids don't arrive with out high drama) we will post some pictures and let you know.  Don't give up on us, I am sure that there will be tons of blogging once pink overtakes this house :)

Just One

I enjoy reading a blog that was started by some pastor's wives from all over the country.  It has become a great resource.  If you are a woman in ministry or a wife of a man in ministry then you need to check out Leading and Loving It.  Last year for the first time they put on a video conference.  I watched it from my living room by myself and it ws really good.  A lot of women spoke and they covered some great topics.  This year though, the staff wives of our church are going to get together and watch.  I am so excited about gleaning not only the information from the women speaking, but also from the women that I get the pleasure and honor of serving with.  Also, bonus I don't have many opportunities to hang out with a lot of these women so I am superexcited about getting some awesome girl time.  If you don't get to watch the videos live, but still want to see them, you can find them on the site in the archives.  You can also view last years as well. 

Herb the Hernia

Spence doesn't know that I named his hernia, but I did.  I think it's catchy, don't you?  Here is the short version of what happened. Around Christmas, Spence got a bad cold.  He coughed for WEEKS!  The second weekend in January, he went to Texas to teach about smal groups.  During his first session Friday night, he felt something kinda pop while he was talking.  Somehow he pressed through and made it to the break.  He went to the bathroom and found a big red knot sticking out of his belly.  He did not know what it was, but did what any real man would do.  He pushed it back it, and then proceeded to teach 4 more sessions over the next 36 hours.  Once he got back to NC, a friend took him to the ER where he was diagnosed with a hernia.  We found out that he could wait to have surgery but that at any time he could need emergency surgery.  With the baby coming, we decided it would be best to go ahead with the surgery as soon as possible.  He had his hernia repaired Tuesday.  He will be out of things for about a week.  He will not be able to lift over 20 pounds for 4-6 weeks.  This should make for an interesting few weeks at least...

Ellie Mae's first shower

My mom and mother in law gave Ellie and me the sweetest shower.  I am loving all the cute pink and gray or pink and brown with elephant prints I keep seeing.  So that was kind of the theme.  Basically my mom and Julie were so excited to finally be able to use pink to decorate that everything was PINK!  It was a great time with friends and family and Ellie racked up in some cute clothes but also some essentials

Zeke helped to open the presents.  Ben slept through most of the shower.  Zeke had a blast opening each gift.  When I said who it was from he scanned the room and said "Who's ____?" Once he fuond them he pointed to them and told them their name.  Then he got down to business with throwing pink tissue paper and yanking the gift out.  He was so excited about each gift, it was so very sweet.

 Flipping awesome cake made my my sister in law Tori

 Name banner

 Napkin (too lazy to change the direction after loading it, sorry)

 Look at that belly! 

 Ellie's first ballet item, a bib!

Quick sidenote: Z had just opened the milk storage bottles and I thought they were bags.  He asked what they were and I was trying to delicately tell my 3 year old what they are used for.  He declared them "MILK BAGS!" after I tried to explain.  He was probably most excited about them.

 This was Zeke's "it's adorable!" face

 He got a little excited and threw the presents at me after he opened them

 He also swung any clothing/blankets around in circles

This was my face while he was swinging everything

Thank you everyone who came and showered us.  We feel much more prepared now with a good dose of pink.  Well, I feel more prepared.  I think Spence feels a bit more overwhelmed looking at all those super cute outfits!

Jump around

Yes, we are those crazy people who now have a mini-trampoline hanging out in our living room.  When I put this on Ben's Christmas list for the grandparents, I wasn't sure what they would think.  Spence's mom said no way was she getting it and sending us to the ER.  My mom laughed and immediately went online to buy it.  To say that the boys LOVE it is such an understatement.  They wake up jumping, they go to bed jumping.  If they get wild and need some activity while their mama is laying on the couch, I send one to run a few laps through our kitchen/living room/dining room and one to jump and then they switch. 

 "Ladies and gentlemen, the "AMAZING Jumping Zekers!" 



"Ladies and JELLYBEANS! It's Ben!"

It's even a good spot for a rest

2012 Book List

I stole this idea from my friend Kelly, who credits the idea from Money Saving Mom.  I love this idea of choosing some very intentional books for me to read through out the course of the year.  I am a reader by nature.  As in, I can not fall asleep at night with out reading for at least 20ish minutes.  I credit this to my mama, who made us read every night for 30 minutes.  She made it a fun thing of being allowed to stay up and read.  As a mom I now know she threw our butts in the bed 30 minutes earlier than what time she wanted us to go to sleep and let us think it was a treat.  Smart lady.  She got herself a few minutes (and boy did she need it with us three kids) and also fostered a love of reading for each of her children.  I do have to admit that I read what Spence would call "trash".  I am not sitting up in bed reading Systematic Theology by any means.  I read as an escape most of the time.  (although I do put away some heavy stuff as well)  Since this is the way I typically read, I have tried to choose some books that are fiction/helpful.  Here is my list.  I would love to hear what you plan to read in the next year or what you have read and think I should check out.  (Oh and my list is only 12 books- hello, I'm having a baby, and I am also not going to assign a month to be read in just in case things go a bit wonky after we have 3 kids in our house)

• Loving the Little Years Rachel Jankovic
• Give Them Grace Elise Fitzpatrick
• The Husband Project Kathi Lipp
• Feminine Appeal Carolyn Mahaney
• Organized Simplicity Tsh Oxenreider
• One Thousand Gifts Ann Voskamp
• Hunger Games triology Suzanne Collins
• Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand
• Gospel J.D. Greear
• Treasuring God in Our Traditions Noel Piper

New Years Day 2012

New Years day was ridiculous.  It was gorgeous outside.  It was way too warm to be January, so we decided to have a little celebration.  Spence made a fire in the firepit and we let the boys eat smore's BEFORE we had dinner.  (insert- this also allowed mom and dad to get to eat smore's before dinner!)  The boys had a blast helping Spence make a fire.  It was a bit windy and took some doing, but we (ahem, Spence) got it gonig and we had some yummy smore's.   Editor's note: do not try to use the fancy new flattened marshmallows when roasting over a fire.  They do not stay on the stick very well and quite a few were sacrificed to the fire...

 What do we do dad?

 My boys

 Ben was very intrigued by the lighter, Spence was not amused that I had bought a pink one

 Zeke's fire dance

 "I got a stick, mama" in the cutest voice ever

Zeke then got bored and moved on to jumping from the top of the slide