Choo Choo! Look Who's Two!

I can hardly believe my little baby is two years old. He has been such a blessing to our family and we love him more with every passing day. I thank the Lord for trusting in us to raise him into a God-fearing man and my prayer is that He will grow up to serve God in amazing ways.

We went with a train birthday party theme this year as that is pretty much all we hear about from our little man. It's an understatement to say that he is obsessed.

I managed to find these cute wooden train whistles and train suckers to go in the goody bags that went along with the train theme.



I wanted to keep things somewhat simple this year and just focus on N getting together with a few of his little friends for a play date at the park. Hubby was able to take a couple of hours off of work to join in on the fun.

The spread.

I had the idea to make a personalized placemat for all of the kids. I was able to snag some Thomas & Friends images from online to print out and laminate. Almost all of the boys were into Thomas so I figured it'd be a huge hit! Oh, and check out the little conductor's hats I found for each of the boys. I was so excited about these but when I went to give one to N to wear he ran from me and refused to put it on. Go figure.


One of the boys looking cool in his conductor hat.

Little Miss got into the birthday spirit as well by wearing her cupcake outfit.

The birthday boy!

What is better than getting messy with a truck and some sand? Let's just say most of us needed to undress our boys before they went into the house.

A few of the boys.

N attempting to blow out his birthday candles.

The gang. Five 2-year olds and one almost 4-year old. Fun times! I couldn't help but laugh when one of the boys grabbed a toy and yelled "mine" and within seconds you hear several of the other boys repeating him yelling "mine" as well.

We opened gifts as a family later on in the evening once Hubby was home from work. I promise I didn't even ask N to put the bow on his head. He's a natural.

We love you Noah! Happy 2nd Birthday!

What a beautiful day.

Sweet pics

A sweet friend took some photos of Little M as a gift to us. They turned out so adorable and of course I had to share them with everyone! I'm saving my favorite until I get all of the baby announcements mailed out.


Look at that pout. Boy are we in trouble.







And then of course we can't forget N. I was offered a free portrait session from a local photography studio. I took them up on the offer of the free session plus one free 8x10 portrait. Check out that handsome fella.

Finally...an update!

I can't believe our little girl is already a month old. Time has flown and boy has she grown! Yep, I can rhyme. N is quite the proud big brother. Just ask him to show you his t-shirt.

He does a great job with Little M and cries out "sister" or "mon" when he sees her.

M is such a sweetheart and such an easy baby. She definitely has us wrapped around her little finger already. And I don't mind at all.

N is also very proud of his trains. It's what we hear about all. day. long. Unless, of course, he takes a break and talks about his cars.

Apparently the play mat can be used for kids of all ages...

LOVE these sock monkey flannel pajamas that some friends gave us. Very cuddly.

The day after Thanksgiving we got the kids in their pj's, loaded up the car and went with Hubby's parents to ride on the Polar Express. I figured given N's love for trains he'd be thrilled to ride on a real one. While he did have a good time, I think the lack of an afternoon nap and the fact that we were nearing his bedtime left him in somewhat of a zone for most of the train ride.

The train goes straight to the North Pole to see Santa. Here's N staring out the window at all of the Christmas lights.

Unfortunately N was still afraid of Santa this year. I think once he catches on that Santa = presents he'll run to sit on his lap.

When Maddie was first born I instantly saw N in her face. She's changed so much over this last month and I'm noticing the resemblance less and less. Can't wait to see who she becomes!

Grabbed a photo of our family just before leaving the Polar Express. So happy to be a family of four and are counting our blessings this Thanksgiving.

After my first day home with two kiddos by myself, Hubby took N out for an errand and came back with a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for "being a good mommy." Makes my heart happy.

She's arrived!

Our beautiful Madeline Grace arrived early on Thursday, Oct. 29th at 6:26 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and 20.5" long to two beyond-blessed parents. After weeks of suffering from severe kidney stone pain, it was decided to bring her in to the world a little early and I have to say we believe it was the best decision we could have made.

We are so thankful for all of the prayers that surrounded us for the birth of M. The delivery was so different than when I had N and I'm so grateful to have had a positive experience this time around. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of our prayer warriors!

There is nothing sweeter than seeing the immediate love between a father and his daughter.

While I missed N tremendously during our stay at the hospital, I have to say that there is something so special about the bonding I was able to have just between M and I. Sort of a "get to know you time" before all of the craziness of home life begins. Hubby stayed the nights with us which was a huge help and also a great bonding experience.




Those eyes melt my heart. She is just oh so sweet to hold that you never want to put her down.

I immediately saw N when I laid my eyes on Little M. It brought back so many memories of first getting to hold him in the hospital and I love getting to see the relation between our two children already.

M has such cute brown fuzzy hair. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her hair will stay dark like mine. I told Hubby he already has a mini me so I deserve one too!

On our way home from the hospital with our bundle of joy!

N is doing great adjusting to having a little sister around. While I'm told there still might be some jealousy issues pop up in the weeks to come, right now he loves hugging and kissing on M and yelling "baby" whenever she enters the room. The word "gentle" has become our mantra for a little while I think.

We had purchased a gift to give the big brother once we arrived at home. He loved the additional GeoTrax set he received to add to his collection. Baby? What baby?


The Lord has blessed us so much with our family of four. I cannot tell you how much we love having pink and blue in our lives.

God is good.

Thanks ladies!

I was blessed last weekend by some friends from our bible study who threw me a surprise baby shower. It is honestly one of the few times I've been genuinely surprised. The funny thing is that I had been helping to plan a night for us to all get together and just chit-chat over food. Little did I know I was helping to plan my own shower! Thanks for a great evening ladies! I'll have to see if anyone took photos since I was camera-less at the restaurant. Hard to believe we have about 6 weeks before this baby is to arrive!

Beautiful flowers, balloons and even a quilt adorned the tabletop to add to the evenings festivities.

Fall brings change

I can feel fall coming here in sunny AZ. It's not quite here, otherwise I'd be snug in my cardigan or long-sleeve shirt and jeans, but it's coming. Fall is my favorite season and yet it comes and goes so quickly here. Our trees tend to lose their leaves overnight while we're all asleep and we definitely don't have the "changing of the closet" where I need to necessarily switch out my winter clothes with the summer ones. We're hoping to head to cooler weather sometime in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse and capture some pretty photos of the leaves changing.

I think for me, fall represents a season of change. Time to evaluate my life and what I could do to improve upon it. What would God desire for me to change? Lately, I've been feeling this tug at my heart more than ever. Change. I sense a lot of life-changing moments coming up this season and next year and I cannot tell you how excited I am for it! I must admit, most of the changes I have no idea what they will be, but for some reason I just feel like this is the year to take some prayerful action. Ya know?

Our little guy seems to be changing all of the time. I love how he makes me laugh. And I love how he knows how to make me laugh. How do they know?

We found this Black & Decker play tool set at a wholesale warehouse we shop at a couple of weeks ago. I debated for a little bit whether to keep it until his birthday or Christmas but I couldn't contain myself and gave in.

Lucas is a tad bit jealous saying that Noah has more tools than he does.

We've learned from Papa, safety first!

Good thing for those safety glasses.

Oh, and did I mention that many of the tools require batteries. Which means that they make annoying noises...All. Day. Long.

Occasionally I'll download photos from the camera and be surprised what Lucas has taken while I'm away. Apparently my little monkey found my socks. Socks are the fun new thing around here. I think those are clean???

Lucas is a definite daddy's boy. I love it. He wants to help Lucas do absolutely everything, and that sad little face when Lucas has to leave in the morning is enough to bring a tear to my eye. I always say, "Daddy has to go to work because he loves us." I'm so thankful that is true.

Life is good. And we are blessed.