...you should see my heart!
DISCLAIMER - I had visions of going through and moving all of the pictures to fit in with what I was writing about, but it is just going to take too much time and I am not invested enough in the end result to chose to use my time in that way. I apologize that there are a lot of photos to look through at the end, but I figure that those who are interested will look regardless of the presentation and I can use my time to stalk other blogs instead. Okay, now to the good stuff....
I was pregnant with Baby Nay-Nay for 39 weeks, and it seemed like an eternity. He is now just over nine months and I keep thinking to myself, "Wait, that went by way too quickly." Having Nathan in our home has been a pure joy, there is no other way to describe it. I love him. I love watching him. I love loving him and I really love watching his big sister and big brother love him. He really is such a lucky baby to be surrounded by so much love. He has the best baby laugh of all time. Kendall and Bryan can make him giggle just about any time of day or night and when he laughs his great big belly laugh it is impossible not to join in. I am convinced his laugh can heal the world. This boy loves the dog (maybe too much!), loves to play chase, loves his KiKi and BryBry, loves to pull all the movies off their shelf, and absolutely adores his daddy. The sound of Ethan's voice will make him stop whatever he is doing (even pulling the movies out) and turn to him and smile. He has started trying to wrestle with Ethan like the big kids do and it is hysterical. And when he gets really excited he just turns to his dad and bites down on whatever is closest. I know it hurts, he has done it to me too, but man alive is it funny.
Bryan just finished up an amazing season of soccer. He had a fantastic coach this year that called him Big Time and Bry really worked hard for him. He is really understanding the game and his skills are really improving. I am hoping he wants to stay with it for a while because I see so much potential in him, and he is still loving the game. I love going to those games, and even the practices are so much fun to watch. He is just so fast. And so funny. I love his sense of humor. He is doing great in school and really likes his teacher. She calls to tell me the funny things he says and does, and it makes me a little sad that I'm not there to see everything, but I am glad that he is doing so well. It is nice to see him having fun and making friends and learning so much. He is becoming quite the little reader. And he loves art and makes me many beautiful art projects that just make my heart smile. He is our sweet funny kid and I love watching him grow.
Kendall only has one more gymnastics meet as a level three and then she loves up to level four. I am beyond impressed with the things this girl can do with her body. She is just a power house. At her last meet she took second place in the vault, and first in the beam, bars, floor and All Around. And she was such a gracious winner, it was just a pleasure watching her up on that podium. She has quite the following of little kids at Bry's soccer games that follow her around and she is so patient with them. They all think she is so nice and so cool and they are right, she is. She is still doing great in school. She was a bit frustrated with her math worksheets because they were taking so long, so I sat down with her to try and see what was issue was. The problem was not Kendall's understanding of math, it was that the teacher always tells them to show their work, so if a problem says there are five glasses with five straws in each glass, how many straws are there in all? Kendall would say to me, 25. I would ask her how she knows and she would say, five five times is 25, and then spend the next four minutes drawing five glasses with five straws in each one to show her work. She just wants to do what is asked of her and if the teacher says show your work than by golly she was going to do it. So now that we have talked with the teacher and discussed just what show your work means we are all a lot happier about homework. She is so smart, not just with school work, but with people too. I love how empathetic she is to everyone around her. And she is a really big help with Nay-Nay. I can not wait to see what she is going to become as she grows up, and it is going to be big - I am sure of it.
Life is tough for me sometimes because Ethan has to be gone a lot and I start to feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, but it is tough to be down for long with such a supportive husband and adorable kids. We keep reminding ourselves that it isn't how much time we have, it is what we do with it. And I think we are doing a pretty good job of enjoying our family time. Even with all of the traveling Ethan and I are finding ways to keep our marriage strong and raise our family the way we always wanted to. We have good neighbors, great friends, a retarded adorable puppy, a steady job, a beautiful home, amazing families, and a loving Father in Heaven. A friend of mine shared a quote that I love. People are not Thankful because they are Happy, they are Happy because they are Thankful. And I have so much to be thankful for - things that really fill my life with hope an happiness. So at those moments when life seems hard and it seems like the to-do list is growing right in front of my eyes I just remind myself that there isn't anything else in the world I would rather be doing than my very best to take care of the things I love.
I was pregnant with Baby Nay-Nay for 39 weeks, and it seemed like an eternity. He is now just over nine months and I keep thinking to myself, "Wait, that went by way too quickly." Having Nathan in our home has been a pure joy, there is no other way to describe it. I love him. I love watching him. I love loving him and I really love watching his big sister and big brother love him. He really is such a lucky baby to be surrounded by so much love. He has the best baby laugh of all time. Kendall and Bryan can make him giggle just about any time of day or night and when he laughs his great big belly laugh it is impossible not to join in. I am convinced his laugh can heal the world. This boy loves the dog (maybe too much!), loves to play chase, loves his KiKi and BryBry, loves to pull all the movies off their shelf, and absolutely adores his daddy. The sound of Ethan's voice will make him stop whatever he is doing (even pulling the movies out) and turn to him and smile. He has started trying to wrestle with Ethan like the big kids do and it is hysterical. And when he gets really excited he just turns to his dad and bites down on whatever is closest. I know it hurts, he has done it to me too, but man alive is it funny.
Bryan just finished up an amazing season of soccer. He had a fantastic coach this year that called him Big Time and Bry really worked hard for him. He is really understanding the game and his skills are really improving. I am hoping he wants to stay with it for a while because I see so much potential in him, and he is still loving the game. I love going to those games, and even the practices are so much fun to watch. He is just so fast. And so funny. I love his sense of humor. He is doing great in school and really likes his teacher. She calls to tell me the funny things he says and does, and it makes me a little sad that I'm not there to see everything, but I am glad that he is doing so well. It is nice to see him having fun and making friends and learning so much. He is becoming quite the little reader. And he loves art and makes me many beautiful art projects that just make my heart smile. He is our sweet funny kid and I love watching him grow.
Kendall only has one more gymnastics meet as a level three and then she loves up to level four. I am beyond impressed with the things this girl can do with her body. She is just a power house. At her last meet she took second place in the vault, and first in the beam, bars, floor and All Around. And she was such a gracious winner, it was just a pleasure watching her up on that podium. She has quite the following of little kids at Bry's soccer games that follow her around and she is so patient with them. They all think she is so nice and so cool and they are right, she is. She is still doing great in school. She was a bit frustrated with her math worksheets because they were taking so long, so I sat down with her to try and see what was issue was. The problem was not Kendall's understanding of math, it was that the teacher always tells them to show their work, so if a problem says there are five glasses with five straws in each glass, how many straws are there in all? Kendall would say to me, 25. I would ask her how she knows and she would say, five five times is 25, and then spend the next four minutes drawing five glasses with five straws in each one to show her work. She just wants to do what is asked of her and if the teacher says show your work than by golly she was going to do it. So now that we have talked with the teacher and discussed just what show your work means we are all a lot happier about homework. She is so smart, not just with school work, but with people too. I love how empathetic she is to everyone around her. And she is a really big help with Nay-Nay. I can not wait to see what she is going to become as she grows up, and it is going to be big - I am sure of it.
Life is tough for me sometimes because Ethan has to be gone a lot and I start to feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, but it is tough to be down for long with such a supportive husband and adorable kids. We keep reminding ourselves that it isn't how much time we have, it is what we do with it. And I think we are doing a pretty good job of enjoying our family time. Even with all of the traveling Ethan and I are finding ways to keep our marriage strong and raise our family the way we always wanted to. We have good neighbors, great friends, a retarded adorable puppy, a steady job, a beautiful home, amazing families, and a loving Father in Heaven. A friend of mine shared a quote that I love. People are not Thankful because they are Happy, they are Happy because they are Thankful. And I have so much to be thankful for - things that really fill my life with hope an happiness. So at those moments when life seems hard and it seems like the to-do list is growing right in front of my eyes I just remind myself that there isn't anything else in the world I would rather be doing than my very best to take care of the things I love.
