A Year in Review...

I know it's been a while, but we're back, complete with pictures. Clink this link to view picture highlights from throughout the year. If you've been frequenting our blog, you've already seen some of them, but there are some newbies, too; I promise.

December is typically a time of thankfulness and reflection for me. Looking back over the year, we have so many things to be thankful for...

...two beautiful, healthy boys
...wonderful friends and family
...an amazing, spiritually challenging church
...gummy baby smiles
...cryptic toddler talk
...sleeping through the night
...sweet memories
...a God who loves us lavishly

Thanks for checking in with us, we'll try to be better at keeping you updated in the future. Despite our busy-ness, we love you and are thankful for having you in our lives. And, we pray you have an amazing, awe-struck Christmas this year.

Picking up where we left off...

We're sorry it's taken us so long to chime in with an update. Shortly after my mom left in early July, we took a road trip to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM to spend some time with my cousin, April, who was finishing up some coursework there. The highlights from that trip were: the pool at the hotel, shopping, the zoo, and good Chinese food (finally!).


After that our dear friends, the Woods came to visit for a few days. They're on furlough from their mission work in Turkey and we cherished our time with them. The boys, as always, loved meeting new friends (and the extra loving, too).


Shortly after the Woods departed, Jeff's parents came to visit. We were able to go out and celebrate our anniversary ALONE. :) We had part of our date before bedtime, came home for bedtime, and then went out again afterward, so that we didn't have to be rushed. It was so nice to take our time celebrating. We also did lots of fun things with Jeff's parents while they were here...parks, hiking, the Discover center...fun times!


After Jeff's parents left, we celebrated Jeff's birthday. Go karts, cake, and Chinese food...does it get any better than that?!? Jeff says not...


Since then, we've been relaxing and watching the Olympics. And, now that the Olympics are over, we're gearing up for Bible study to start in the fall. We're so excited to be studying our Pastor Jimmy Evan's book and video series "Marriage on the Rock." It should be fun, if you think of it, pray for us as we facilitate this group.


Well, that's probably plenty for now, hopefully, not as much time will pass before I update you again. :)

He said holy...

...and my heart melted.

I was rocking Will to sleep for the roughest nap of the day (the one that starts at 3-4 p.m. after a long hard day of eating, sleeping, pooping, and lately playing!). Sometimes singing helps to calm him down while I rock, so I was singing the worship song "We Fall Down." If you're familiar with the song, you know the chorus has a line that says "...and we cry holy, holy, holy is the Lamb." In the middle of the song, Elliot (who has been adding a word or more a day to his vocabulary) starting singing "holy, holy, holy" with me, smiling, and twirling around in the middle of the living room with his arms spread wide...and my heart melted. And, I think God's did, too.

Lots of Love...

Grandma Lewis was visiting last week...hence the silence on the blog. We had lots of fun PLAYING, shopping, and resting. And, of course, we had lots of extra loving, so here are just a few shots of all those lovey dovey moments:

Preparing for Grandma...

Today we begin a month full of visiting and visitors. First among these is my mom's visit, which commences today. In preparation for "grammy-wham's" visit, we've been cleaning, tidying, and cooking as much as a baby and a toddler will allow. My mom would probably prefer if I prefaced the next portion of the entry by saying that she does not care what my house (or my children) look like, she just wants to visit, but I like to try my best to create a clean, welcoming environment for our guests, so we've been working toward that end.

Monday (Day -3): Clean cars and bathrooms.
Tuesday (Day -2): Do laundry.
Wednesday (Day -1): Sweep floors, clean kitchen, and pick up toys in yard. Burn candles in rooms with diapers to overshadow diaper smells.
Thursday (Day of mom's arrival): Quickly reclean bathrooms and kitchen. Give up on resweeping floors laden with a day's worth of toddler crumbs. Clean children so they smell good for grandma (the children were particularly not on board with this mission...Will had to have FOUR baths this morning because he pooped in the first THREE!...then Elliot got out of the bathtub and pee'd on the floor...reclean floor...). Rinse out poopy cloth diapers (Elliot's "helps" by flushing between diapers...unfortunately, he became impatient waiting for the toilet to refill so he could flush again, so he began shutting the toilet lid on my head to pass the time...hmmm...reconsidering cloth diapering now...). :)

After all that, we're ready for grandma...the house, children, and myself are clean and tidy...I'll just need a nice long nap after she gets here... :)

The BEST reality TV show...

Let me preface this entry by saying that Jeff and I don't usually get into reality TV shows. Sometimes we'll watch an episode here and there for comic relief and turn it off it gets too boring or complicated, but we just watched one of the BEST ones we think has hit the screens...it's called "The Baby Borrowers." It's airs on Wednesday's at 9/8c on NBC. Here's a truncated excerpt from NBC's website:

"The Baby Borrowers" is an intriguing social experiment wherein teenage couples fast-track to adulthood by setting up a home, getting a job, and becoming caring parents first to babies, then toddlers, pre-teens and their pets, teenagers, and senior citizens (all on loan from real parents watching on closely nearby) - all over the course of three weeks.

The first two episodes (last week and this week) were on the "pre-baby" and "baby" stages (we couldn't have donated Will because he's too young...and probably too sweet). Next week begins toddlers (can we still donate Elliot for the sake of social reform?!?...just kidding, he's probably too sweet, too). :) In any case, it's somewhat comical to be a happy yet exhausted parent in a good/normal/planned season of life and watch the difficulties of parenthood displayed on TV to the end of reforming teenagers who think they're "ready" or that parenting is "easy." Good comic relief for brain-fried parents of young children if nothing more...

Anyway, here are our a few pictures of our little sweetnesses smelling sweet after their baths (ahh, how I wish you could smell my bathroom after bathtime...baby soap is intoxicating...).

Sometimes too much of a Good Thing...

...is just about right. We've been experiencing this in several areas of life lately. In particular, I have been realizing that we just need to get back to the basics. These are such fun years in life and I don't want to lament how I spent my time during them when I'm older. We need lots of Jesus (Bible studies, church, worship music, prayer, ...), lots of hugs and kisses, lots of family time and play time, ... Lots of other things, too, but those are the ones I've been slacking on lately. The boys have been enjoying lots of good things lately, too.

First off, they've been enjoying lots of time in their new double stroller! It's amazing and works wonderfully for strolling and jogging. Yesterday, it even magically put them both to sleep (much needed sleep, I might add)... Come to think of it, I think that all Will does is sleep in the stroller. :)


On a related note, Elliot has been enjoying swinging in our tree swing lately, too. One afternoon (when he thought he had successfully eluded a nap), he fell asleep from "too much of a good thing." :)
During his waking hours, Elliot has been enjoying lots of "bubbies." He likes them in every form...bubbles in the bathtub, soap suds from the kitchen sink, blowing bubbles in the yard, ... you name it. He even tried to get me to steal the bubble machine from the church nursery when I picked him up the other day...silly boy...here he is popping bubbles in the back yard...

And, from sweet Will, we've been enjoying lots of smiles lately. He loves to be talked to, have his face and head rubbed, and usually rewards you with one of these sweet things in return...

Did I mention the sweet smiles...

...ahh...praying that you're enjoying too much of a good thing in your life today, too!