Catching Up

It has been so long since I have been able to sit down and update this blog that I was tempted to just throw in the towel. I hope, though, that there are still a few people out there who would like some updates on our family so here I am. I'm going to have to keep it short and sweet as I share what we have been up to over the last few weeks.

First of all, in July we were blessed to have Josh's parents make the trip from Virginia to Illinois to visit us in our new home. Now that they made the trip I'm not sure that they'll be making it again any time soon - at least not by car. It is a long drive. We loved having them here though. We were fortunate to live just an hour and a half away from them for the last seven years so we've been able to spend a great deal of time together. Because of that whenever they visit they just fit naturally into our life. We enjoyed showing them around our new town, our new church and just spending time together. The Parsons are early risers and one of the kindest things they always do for us is get up with the boys so that Josh and I can sleep in. We very rarely get to sleep in - the boys are our alarm clock every morning - so we love this little luxury. I was especially grateful as I got sick once again - my Southern lungs are having a hard time out here in the Midwest.

While the Parsons were here we celebrated Lance's third birthday party. He chose to have a Power Rangers Dino Charge themed party and we were grateful to our friends from church who took the time to come and celebrate with us. For all of the boys' birthdays up until now we have celebrated with our family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins have all been there along with some close friends. Birthdays will be different now that we are farther away and we were grateful that the Parsons could be here and that we had friends to love on Lance with us. He had a wonderful time and was spoiled with some wonderful presents.

Our church hosted a Backyard Bible Club at the end of July. Josh and I both helped with the event and the boys loved participating. We had about fifteen kids who came and enjoyed the activities, crafts, games, and learning important lessons from God's word. Clark and Lance are still listening to the songs on CD and doing the motions that they learned. I am grateful for the volunteers who helped make BBC possible. Serving alongside them was a great way to get to know them all better, and as a mom I appreciate other people taking the time to pour into my children. Funny story - I helped by leading music (even though I had completely lost my voice and mainly had to teach the kids to dance to the songs!). Lance is a dancing fool at home but of course at BBC he refused to move. One day he stood up front next to me wearing his black sunglasses, completely stoic as the rest of us danced and sang along to the fun songs. I felt like I had my own Secret Service detail.

About a week after BBC ended Josh's birthday rolled around. The day itself was rather routine, grocery shopping and such, but the boys and I did have a gift for him and we enjoyed eating out and checking out a new local restaurant (which we loved!). The next day, however, Josh had a disc golf game planned with some of the guys from church and the boys and I planned a surprise party for him. When they finished playing the other families and I were waiting with cupcakes and water to celebrate Josh. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we could celebrate Josh in a special way. He is a special guy and certainly deserved it.
 

The last bit of excitement we experienced was not the good kind. This past Thursday Clark went running toward the hall while looking behind him and ran straight into a corner, busting his head open. Many of you will remember that he has already had staples in his head once after flipping a chair over backwards. I couldn't believe we were doing it again. Thankfully this time a doctor friend was able to come over and tend to Clark's injury without requiring more staples or stitches. He essentially taped it back together which meant we had to shave a big circle out of the hair on the side of Clark's head. So Clark has been fine ever since, he's just rocking an awesome hairdo.

I think that pretty much sums up our life over the last few weeks. It is a full life we are leading. Things are going well for Josh at church as he plans for some new and exciting things in the Fall. I am currently leading a women's book study on The Envy of Eve by Melissa Kruger. I highly recommend the book if you have not read it before, we are really enjoying discussing it each week. God continues to bless our family as we settle into this new life that He called us to.

Lance Turns Three!

Someone once said to me, "The days are long but the years are short." I can think of no truer statement as it relates to parenting little ones, and I was very much aware of this fact as we celebrated Lance's third birthday yesterday. I know it has become almost cliche to say it, but where has the time gone? How can my baby be a three year old? It feels like I lost a year in there somewhere.

I spent the day yesterday playing the "Three years ago at this time I was... " game. It is hard not to when you had such a memorable day. Three years ago at this time I was 42 weeks and 1 day pregnant and getting ready to go to the hospital for a C Section. Three years ago at this time I was in labor and walking the halls of the maternity wing with Josh and my Dad. Three years ago at this time I was in labor - in the painful, blurred, better not to remember labor. Three years ago at this time Lance finally made his debut, the spitting image of his father with a head full of dark hair. What amazing memories to relive.

When you have your second child I think you expect many things to go like they did with your first. You know that they are going to be two different people, but I think you still have certain expectations. I did anyway. Lance challenged every single one of them. He is as different from Clark as he probably could be and it is both fascinating and challenging for me as a mom. I am amazed at how two children can come from the same parents and grow up in the same house and be so unique in the way they think, in the way they respond, in the way they love. It has given me such a greater appreciation for the creativity of the God who made them.

Lance is the wilder of my two Wild Things. He has one speed and one volume:  fast and loud. He is wide open from the moment he wakes up until the moment he falls asleep. He lives intensely, and he loves fiercely. He will not do things just because everyone else is doing them. He has no problem doing his own thing and being his own person. He is very physical, which means he loves nothing more than to wrestle his Daddy or snuggle his Mommy. He loves to make people laugh and has a mischievous smile that will melt your heart, especially if you're trying to discipline. He has the most kissable, soft cheeks and I am so grateful that I get to be the one to hold him and kiss him every day.

Since yesterday was his birthday we let Lance control what we did. He chose to spend the morning playing at the splash pad. After Josh got off work he chose to eat dinner at his favorite restaurant - the Happy Meal House - followed by a doughnut from Krispy Kreme and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. It was a fun day to spend just focusing on the boys, especially Lance, and celebrating the crazy that is life with little boys.

Our First Visitors

We were so excited to have our first visitors here in Springfield - my Mom and Dad. Getting ready for their arrival probably took a week. Cleaning the house is a two steps forward, one step back situation for us, plus we had some odd projects still unfinished from the move that we wanted to get done. But we did our best to get it all clean to show off to Gammy and Papa.

I love it when my parents come to visit. My parents are fun to spend time with. I'd probably want to hang out with them even if they weren't my parents, although they may not want to spend time with me. Ha. Thankfully I'm theirs so they do not have a choice. For the last several years our visits with my parents have had to be short due to my Dad's work commitments, but now that he is retired they were able to come and stay for a week. It's a good thing too since it was a two day drive for them to make it here. They needed time to recover.

My parents are always a blessing to us when they come, and this trip was no exception. Whether it was bringing us shelves for our garage and helping to set them up, paying for a lunch out, repairing my swing that got broke in the move process, cooking dinner for us, or letting Josh and I get away for a little date night they found so many ways to give us a hand while they were here.

We had plenty of fun though. We had fun showing Gammy and Papa what life is like for us in Springfield. We took them to story time at the library, to our new church, even bowling. Mom and I were able to get away for an impromptu shopping trip and some much-needed girl time. We stayed up past bedtime to chase fireflies and light sparklers and get ice cream. Even the adults stayed up late playing games and watching movies together.

It was hard to say goodbye. My parents have their own big move coming up in the next couple of months and we do not know when we will see each other again. But we have some great memories from this trip and we will keep a running list of all of the things we want to remember to do together next time.

It took almost a week for us to recover from all of the fun (and the lack of sleep!). But the best part? We get to do it all again next week. Josh's parents are going to be coming for a visit and we cannot wait! Guess I might need to get started on the cleaning...

Father's Day

This Father's Day there are three men that I want to take a moment to recognize.

The first is my husband, Josh. Josh is an amazing father to our two boys. He has taught me so much about what it means to have little boys and how to raise them. Josh works so hard to provide for our family but he also takes the time to be there for the boys - and me - personally. He wants to spend time with them, which can be a rare trait, and he makes it a priority to do so. Josh cannot walk through the door without the boys running to greet him and ask if they can wrestle. They adore him, and I adore the way they laugh and squeal and play when they are together. It is a privilege to get to raise our boys alongside Josh.

The second is my own father. He was the one who first showed me what a Dad should be. I sincerely believe it takes special men to be able to raise daughters and Dad was one of those men. He has always been there for me and I love that I can still pick up the phone and call if I have a problem or just something funny to share. I have loved watching him become a Papa and I am grateful for the relationship that he is building with my boys. I will always be a Daddy's girl.

The third is my father-in-law, John. Ever since Josh picked me John has loved me like I was his own. He did not have little girls to raise so I am quite certain that my emotional self has scared him on more than one occasion, but he is still the one who will take time to check on me and who shows up at my house with bags full of chocolate Treasures because he knows they are my favorite and I can never find them. He is a devoted grandfather and our boys love their Tractor Man.

Being a father, being a parent, is hard work. We all fail sometimes. But to all of the dads out there who refuse to take the easy way out, who are trying to be there for their children and raise them well, the work you do is priceless. Thank you.

Let's Hear It for the Boys!

I thought I would take a minute to let you know how Clark and Lance are doing, since I am pretty sure that is the only reason some of you bother reading this blog. Both boys are doing wonderfully and have done such a great job settling into our new home, new church, and new city!

Clark's latest obsession is Power Rangers. It started out with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and has since moved on to Power Rangers Dino Charge. If you know my oldest at all then you know that this means he will tell you everything that there is to know about Power Rangers in great detail any time, day or night. He loves to pretend to be the Red Ranger and he has the most awesome imagination. For his birthday (which is still three months away) he has already decided that he wants the Megazord and we have made more than one visit to Toys R Us for him to show us said Megazord and then to visit (yes, visit) said Megazord.

Lance's big news is that he has started potty training. We held off on starting him with the move and all of the transitioning we had going on. He will be three next month and I think he is ready now. He has been doing a great job. He has a sticker chart and he is working on earning enough stickers to get a Power Ranger toy (can you see the influence there?) but I also remembered who I am dealing with so he has also started earning jelly beans. That has been an excellent incentive. He is not a baby anymore and there's no denying it, although he still snuggles up in my lap and sucks his thumb and twirls my hair. Someone else will have to make him give that up one day because I'm not doing it.

The boys are both signed up for the Summer Reading Program at our local library and we are enjoying going to the library every week for story time. We play in the kid's department, enjoy the stories and songs and crafts, and pick out lots of books and a couple of movies to bring home. It has been interesting to keep track of how much we actually read. They are also doing a program called 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and we've already hit the 100 book goal in about one month. One of the things I enjoy is picking out a bunch of books and then seeing which ones they like most during the week. They tend to want to read their favorites again and again and it is fascinating to me which ones they like. Clark has an awesome memory and can quote lines from books once he has read them only once or twice. We need to start putting that mind to work memorizing Scripture.

We did buy an inflatable pool for our yard and so we have spent a lot of time beating the heat in our backyard. Our backyard is actually very shaded so even when it is incredibly hot outside (which it has been lately!) the pool can be quite cool. We decided we really love to hook up the sprinkler and run around in it... or stick our booties in it. You decide which one you think my boys like best. I must admit, I miss the beach. We never went a whole lot but just to be able to go... There's something about knowing you are miles and miles and miles from the coastline. Whenever we go back to visit I think I am going to have to go to the beach and just stand there for awhile soaking it all in.

Enjoy all of the cuteness! 

9 Years

Today Josh and I are celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary. I use the term celebrating rather loosely. These days a celebration in our house means minion stickers on Lance's Power Potty Chart - Go Go Potty, Lancey! But that's another post altogether. Today was pretty much a day like any other for our family. And I am okay with that.

It can be tempting to think back to the way things used to be. Don't you remember all of the emotions you felt when you first met your spouse, when you started to fall in love? Don't you remember all of the excitement of getting engaged and planning your wedding? Those were good days. Those were good feelings. But ask anyone who has been married for more than a year or two and they will tell you, those feelings start to change. Life starts to change. There's school and jobs and housework and honey-do's. There are babies that won't sleep and children that get sick and sinks that leak and... well, you know. Let me just say, though, that if you stick with it... if you are committed to the vows you made to your spouse and to God... It is beautiful. 

Because the jewelry he bought you when you were dating? It is  special and you still wear it and remember. But the other day you were sick and he corralled your boys and let you sleep - oh precious sleep - and there was nothing greater he could have given you. The words that he whispered in your ear once when you sat on the beach in the moonlight? They were sweet. But they have nothing on the words that he whispered in your ear as you clutched his hand and he helped you to find the strength to bring your son into the world.  That time he came to get you from the doctor because you were alone and scared and hurting? That was selfless. But then your dog got cancer. And he knew that you would go if you had to, but that it would be more than you could bear. So he went instead. He stayed with him so he wouldn't be alone in the end. And then you held each other up as your hearts broke together.


It is beautiful.

So this evening I fed the boys and we had a dance party in the living room. I read them their bedtime stories and snuggled their chatty little selves until they finally got sleepy. Josh stayed late at work and then put on a black suit and helped family and friends say their goodbyes to a loved one. And we met at the end of it all, tired. But this is life together. Isn't it beautiful?

Josh, I am thankful for the nine years we have had together. I love you. I love our life. And I am glad that I get to wake up tomorrow and do it all again. Happy Anniversary.

Retirement

Today was the retirement ceremony of Captain Ray Stewart, or as I like to call him, Dad. He served 6 years in the Marine Corps Reserves and twenty-one years in the US Navy as a Chaplain. I really don't think there are words to adequately convey how proud I am of him.

My Dad is an amazing man. He has always worked incredibly hard to provide for our family, even when doing so meant being apart from us for weeks and months at a time. He has a strong work ethic, he is a loyal friend, he is a natural leader, he is a devoted husband. He is the kind of man who drives his Harley and climbs mountains and hangs out of helicopters for fun but has the sensitivity of heart to raise two girls. He took those girls to climb mountains, but he wasn't afraid to hug us and love us and take time to really listen.

I wish that I could have been there for my Dad's retirement ceremony today, but if there is anything that my Dad has taught me it is that following God requires sacrifice. My Dad was an officer, but he was first and foremost a lover and follower of God. The decisions that he has made in his life, in his career, all come from the relationship he has with the Lord and a desire to glorify Him and serve Him with his life. Those decisions often required sacrifice.

I have to come to understand that one of the areas in my life where God requires sacrifice is in family. Ever since my Dad joined the Navy twenty-one years ago we have lived away from our family. I remember Christmases when it was just my Mom, Dad, Katie and I. I remember birthdays and other holidays when my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins would all be together but we could not be there. I have envied people their relationships with their families. To be able to run up the street for dinner with your sister or call your Mom when you weren't feeling well and needed help with your children or just stop by for a chat with your grandmother. I don't know what that is like, but I imagine it is wonderful.

I know, however, that my family has always been and continues to be where God has called us. As a child I trusted in the leadership of my father. As a wife, I trust in the leadership of my husband. We serve God where He calls us, and He has called us away. When I trust in that, I can trust that whatever I have sacrificed - including family - is nothing compared to what God has planned. And He is faithful to us, even as we sacrifice. He gives us good things. What time I have with my family is always precious and sweet. It is something special, something we celebrate. And God has blessed us with friends that are like family, brothers and sisters in Christ who stand in the gap for us. Who have us in their homes on the holidays and come when we are sick and need help with our children and just do life together with us.

Today I am especially grateful for some of those friends. Not for me, but for my Dad. I couldn't be there for him today and he understood that probably better than anyone. But counted among the list of people who were at his ceremony today, alongside my Mom and sister and grandparents and other family members, were the friends who have become family. They were there and I am so grateful.

So tonight this post is for you, Dad. I am so proud to be your daughter. I am proud of the career you have led, and I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store for this next chapter of life for you and Mom. I love you.