Surprise!

Most of you know this already, but Jon surprised me on Friday with a 30th birthday party, made a million times more special because Mama, Daddy, Greg, and Lucy were there! M, D, & G flew out from Virgina; L came from New York. It was great. I don't have any pictures on our camera from the party (the camera was in my purse, which was with me when Casey took me out to a movie and coffee as a surprise diversion to get me out of the house), so I'll have to post those later. I loved the party, loved the sweet planning done by my husband, and loved having the family here.

Edit: Here are some pictures from Suzanne. My absolute favorite is the second one of me pulling the curtain back, as Daddy is yelling "surprise":












Here are pictures from a little bit of our fun weekend. Oh, and I got my hair cut!

Our go-to family outing: the Spectrum

When the weather is nice, we like to pile in the car and go to the Irvine Spectrum to walk around.

Parking garage elevators provide the opening entertainment




Run or skip to Jamba Juice for smoothies




Lucy and Levi waiting outside






Enjoy smoothies and stroll past the stores and fountains



Some days, we go on the carousel for a special treat






Head back to the car using Daddy as mode of transportation (or, if you're Levi, just dilly dally)

Costumes

This year, Nate was a knight. He bought the costume with his own money (which he earned "working" at my parents' store in Lynchburg). He kept telling everyone he was "a gallant knight," since that's what the package said.

Lucy was a 50's girl complete with spinny skirt (handed down from Cami).

The good and the not-so-good

In thinking about the purposes of my blog (keeping family in the know, recording our family events in lieu of scrapbooking, journaling my thoughts), I decided I'd like to do a "life snapshot" post every once in a while, describing the great things and the difficult things I'm dealing with. That way, I can look back months or years from now and see how God has worked in our family.

The good

• Jon and I are consistently on the same wavelength, communicate well, and enjoy being around each other. I love my husband.
• Sleep. Our kids go to bed easily/on time and sleep well, with night wakings rare. Nate and Lucy are quiet in the mornings, and generally, I am woken up by my alarm clock, not them.
• I actually love not having TV. (Jon might disagree.) I like that we mostly watch pre-approved movies (Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, and Pete's Dragon are in the current rotation).
• Nate is behaving well at and liking school, and I really like his teacher. This might seem trivial, but when there have been some behavior issues in the past, good behavior is big.
• Our church. We love it and we love our friends there.
• AWANA, a kids ministry I help with, is so much easier for me personally this year. Nate loves Sparks, Lucy loves Cubbies, and Levi does well in the nursery, so I don't spend the whole evening worrying about the children.
• My one-day-per-week job. I enjoy it, and it brings in a little extra money.
  

The difficult

• Consistently, the most difficult times in our day are 7:30-8:00 a.m. (trying to get out of the house in time to get Nate to school), 12:00-1:00 p.m. (getting home from school when tired/hungry), and 5:30-6:30 p.m. (trying to cook dinner and keep hungry kids from fighting). Looking at this list, I know that I can eliminate almost all of the stress of these times if I would prepare better. Get up a bit earlier in the morning and/or prepare the children's clothes the night before. Prepare fun/interesting games for the post-school car ride (I already bring snacks, so the hunger really shouldn't have such an impact). Do dinner prep during nap/rest time in the afternoon.
• Nate and Lucy bicker a lot, and Levi is now putting himself into the mix. I feel like I am constantly instructing, constantly redirecting, constantly saying, "That was not a kind way to speak; try saying it this way instead." I suspect this is one of those seasons where I won't see the fruit from this particular training for a long time.
• I worry about our finances with property taxes due and Christmas coming.
• With busy schedules, I feel I rarely get to see my good friends outside of shared ministries. Again, I know this is probably just a season.

Maybe I should start with the difficult and end with the good; that way the post won't end on a depressing note!

Kidisms

Nate: "Maple syrup comes from maple trees. Regular syrup comes from syrup trees."

Lucy, at a fall festival last night when she wanted to play a game that was decorated with cartoon mummies: "I want to do that one--the one with the mamas."

Nate, asking about communion at church: "Are we going to have the Lord's Suffer today?"

Now he can never be a nose model

Levi took a tumble last night (well actually, he was pushed, but we aren't exactly sure what happened) into the couch or the ottoman (again, not sure), and it looks like he might have broken his nose! He cried but was acting fine within a few minutes.

A few minutes after the accident:



We called our nurse practitioner friend from church, who said they don't do much for broken noses, except perhaps a couple of months down the line if there are breathing issues or cosmetic concerns. So we just watched Levi for signs of concussion (lethargy, dilated pupils, etc.), which he didn't have at all. He wasn't phased at all and looks pretty good today.

Tonight:

Vegas

We went to Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday nights with Neil and Casey. We split up the kids a little bit to make it easier on our sweet friends who watched them (Nate and Lucy went to Amy's, bless her heart, and Levi went to Janel's). We stayed at a very swanky place (major sarcasm here), The Riviera. We slept in, ate good food, toured all the hotels, gambled a little bit, went to a movie (The Social Network--liked it), shopped (I browsed mostly), and had a wonderful, relaxing time.

We got back, and Levi was mad at me. He wouldn't hug me or let me hold him for the rest of the day. I remember Mama saying Greg did the same thing when she went on a trip once. What's up with that? :)

I took barely any pictures, but here are a few.

Pumpkin patch

We took the kids to their favorite October destination, the pumpkin patch, on Sunday.

Crafting Grandpa-style

The Home Depot near us has free kids' crafts/building projects the first Saturday of each month (perhaps it's a national Home Depot thing; I don't know). We've gone a couple of times, and Nate and Lucy love it. Last time, Nate made a periscope, Lucy a butterfly house. This month's project was fire boats.

Posting from work

I thought I'd write a quick update on my working-on-Mondays schedule. I'm sitting at my Monday desk in Long Beach right now. I think it's my fifth Monday coming in, and I love it. Jennifer does a great job caring for the kids, so I come home to a happy household. I've been getting home between 4:00 and 5:00, so I have time to make dinner and do normal evening stuff. I'm enjoying the work here, and the projects are small and quick so that I never feel stressed or have to leave something unfinished.

Levi counting

I just can't get enough of this boy.

Hello first fall sickness!

We're dealing with sickness this week. Levi got it first, but just a touch. Lucy's in the throes now. I fear Nate might get it next, so I kept him home from school. Our kids, especially Nate and Lucy, get stomach bugs bad.

It's a rainy, dreary, movie-watching day over here.

Favorite things

I just got a hankering to write down my favorite things about each of our children. :)

Nate - 5 years 5 months old today. His freckles (oh, how I love them). How one eye is darker than the other. How gentle he is with babies. How he draws (it's the typical 5-year-old stuff with sticks for fingers, etc., and I love it). His natural leadership tendencies (a struggle sometimes, but will be a strength too).

Lucy - 3 and a half years exactly (tomorrow). Her foodar (i.e., like radar but for food). When she gets in dance-y moods. Her belly. How I will walk in a room and see the lights off, fan on, and a teddy bear tucked in bed, because she put it down for nap.

Levi - 22 months. The language spurts that occur each week. His one dimple on his right cheek. How he wants to do everything Nate is doing, even when he doesn't really know what's going on. How he calls his pacifiers "foffies." His infectious laugh. His comedic moods. How he says Lucy's name ("Ee-ee") and now has enough language to tell me when she has done something wrong ("Mama! Ee-ee did dat"). And while I do not love his dilly dallying every.single.place. we go, I do think it's cute (sometimes).

Here's how they were all sitting the other day watching a video. Funny.