Charmed life

I am done with tax season. Wait, that deserves an exclamation point!!! (even three:))

I remember writing the post about my first day of tax season and that before I knew it I would be done. Now is that time.

It reminds me that time truly does fly.

Emma is almost four years old. I am filling out her application for preschool in the fall. It feels like I was just filling out her papers for her birth certificate and holding her as a newborn thinking: "I'm a mom! WOW! Now what?!" I was amazed that the hospital would just let me take this baby home. I didn't know how to be a mom, and yet, the Lord and my family have helped me figure it out along the way.

Greyson is 8 months old. I KNOW I was just holding him, preemie size, and barely able to believe he was healthy and in my arms. Now he's still in my arms, but has grown so much and is on his way to being mobile.

Jon is working, successfuly, in his new career. Weren't we just discussing what to do when he saw his last job was a dead end? Weren't we just clawing our way through his schooling? Here we are, past the hardest part (of that stage anyway:)) and thankful for his job.

And then there is me. I have been praying for conviction and the Lord has been gracious to answer that prayer. Daily I see things that I wouldn't normally notice in myself that need changed. I have started praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit as I often forget that doing so is a sure fire way to have more power in my life. A friend reminded me that I can take EVERY thought captive to Christ. How freeing! I don't 'have' to be chained down by the worst of me. Envy, comparing myself to others, selfishness, etc. I can choose to give my sinful thoughts to Christ before I entertain them and they grow into bigger sins. I have known this verse for a long time but the Lord has recently made it come alive in me. I am excited to become more like Christ as He continues to help me.

Our home is awesome. I thank the Lord for it daily. We enjoyed sitting on the front porch this evening after dinner. Emma was picking white puffy dandelions and blowing their fuzzy helicopters all over the yard. And then she'd run to the far end of the yard, passing tons of dandelions on the way, to find the perfect one to pick and run back to me and blow the fuzzies again. Greyson was on my lap and giggling everytime Emma would run. And he loved watching the fuzzies fly all around us. The big maple tree in our front yard is huge and the leaves are quickly providing shade as they blossom. Few cars pass by and Greyson loves that too. The air was cool but refreshing and I thought: "I remember dreaming of this when I was a kid" and now it's here. I feel blessed. I feel like this is the charmed life right now.
Don't get me wrong, our life isn't perfect. Greyson fusses and I get impatient with Emma who whines. Jon gets stressed about his job and I get cranky and selfish with my time and money. The dog eats grass clods and stinks up the house... etc. Bigger things plague us too. We need wisdom to make the right decisions for our family going forward and Jon and I pray for mercy and knowledge about how to raise our children to love the Lord and fulfill His plan for them. We want to continue to nurture our marriage and safeguard it from satan. We want to know when to buy the right vehicle. We desire God's wisdom to stretch our money and help us to know what to do with it. The list goes on...

But for tonight, sitting outside with my precious kids, watching the cars go by and the dandelions fuzzies fly, I could just appreciate that I have a charmed life.

Jon's birthday

Emma and I made a monkey birthday cake for Jon's birthday today.
We had a great time decorating it and we all enjoyed some after the steak dinner we made for Jon too!
Happy birthday honey!

Before and After- Emma's room

Before



After

I think the pictures will say it all...

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. It's been busy, hence the lack of posts. I am working and working on the house when I'm not at work. I promise before and after pictures will be posted soon. We were able to get the new furniture for the living room and are trying samples of paint on the walls to make sure we like what we put up there. I'll also be getting the dining room and kitchen paint as well. I'll be a painting fool for weeks!
The sunroom windows are coming so clean! We thought they were frosted but turns out they were just dirty! ewww!! At least it's going to look great when I finish getting them all scrubbed spic and span.

Grey has been working hard on getting his first tooth... so hard in fact that he got two! His bottom teeth are poking through and he gnaws on everything!
He also is practicing rolling.



Emma is being a great big sister. She likes to help out and as long as Greyson gets nowhere close to her pigtails she's fine. He grabs everything he can reach and unfortunately that's included her hair a couple times. They sure are sweet kids. I am so blessed.

Just for fun

Just for fun I put Greyson in a superhero sleeper.


Just for fun I took a picture of Emma having fun.


Just for fun I took an oil painting class. Here is my painting of poppies.

Spring fun in the winter

Emma is loving the sunshine and backyard.

She warms my heart.

10 and 6

Jon and I celebrated ten years of marriage last month. With all of our craziness this past few months I didn't get to blog about it. But we didn't forget!
We were able to get out for a wonderful dinner and Jon surprised me with a beautiful silver necklace.
I don't have a picture of either...

But I do have some pictures of Greyson who is six months old now! He is in the grabby-doesn't want to miss anything- stage. I really love it, he's so fun.
He loves baby food. We are only feeding him rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, bananas and sweet potatoes at this point. But he gets excited when he seems me get his food ready. He smacks his lips and kicks his legs. He's rolling side to side but still not clear over on his own. Although he really wants to when I'm changing his diaper.
He's growing so fast and I'm so thankful for him.