hey baby hey

hallelujah for another happy and healthy visit to the dr today! brad took us all and treated the boys to donuts while i got to pee in a cup, get weighed, listen to the precious little beat of baby's heart, and get an h1n1 vaccine.

i am currently 15 weeks along and am slowly starting to feel a little better! praise the lord. no pukes for almost 2 weeks. what a reason to celebrate! still dry heaving and still losing some weight, so i am working hard to get lots of food down and keep it there. my baby daddy is determined to help the weight gain project. i am weary of feeling ill and feeling like i am just trying to survive. i know the day is coming when i can give my older children the attention they need and give the growing baby the energy/food he/she needs.

though i have been down this road of miracles twice before, i am overwhelmed at how awesome this experience of becoming a mommy is. seeing the evidence of a growing baby causes me to bow in humility to our father and proclaim his power and majesty "you are the first and you are the last, and apart from you there is no other god" Isaiah 44:6.

jesus, empower me to be a gracious mother. grant me patience and peace as i teach my children to grow in you. lead my actions and guide my words so that in me my kids see you. thank you for this beautiful gift of motherhood.

The Night of the Red Snail

this is the face of an injured boy.

last night revealed a characteristic in max we hoped would not be as prevalent as it exhibited itself yesterday; his tendency to overreact. he may have learned a thing or two from the master, his mommy, but i can only take so much responsibility for the occurrences of last night. brad was roughhousing with the boys while i was cramming dishes into the dishwasher, a typical evening around this house. suddenly, the giggles were pierced with a panicked scream. i rushed over to see maxer bent over his foot yelling "look at my red snail!" sure enough, his nail had kind of ripped and his toe was bleeding. truthfully, the injury did look painful. but it was not the pain that had maxwell all worked up. it was the red.

max began wailing "what do we do?", "i need a burn daid", and "daddy, get your flashlight!" brad assumed a role of dr dad while i tried really hard to keep the dry heaves dry. bear also went into hysterics just because he is such a sympathetic bro.

i am very grateful to report the toe is healing nicely after an evening of exaggerated limping, whimpering, and snuggling with dad. here we are checking things out this morning before bath time:

i sincerely hope these situations will help me tone down my own drama so as not to create a whole family of freakouts.

Adventures at Aldi's

we generally get our groceries from our local aldi's. they have cheap prices without the need for coupons, and it is a smaller store so the whole fiasco typically does not last super long. thank you jesus. my grocery bill is not outlandish, neither is the frequency of which i get groceries. the only real problem is that every time i go there is such trouble with my boys. aldi's does not bring out the best in these kids of mine. for one thing, the employees shoot your groceries down the belt to the cash register so quickly that i can only focus on unloading the items and not on corralling my kids. typically, once i have a small majority of groceries unloaded maxer informs me that "poop is coming". crap, literally. so then i shove the groceries back into the cart, apologize to the patrons waiting not so patiently behind me and rush to the bathroom that has a noisy hand dryer that scares my boys so the lose their minds even more.

now i am sweating, a lot, and my bread is being squished by the apple juice, no one will get back in the cart, and i have to unload all over again. today, during the second attempt to pay for the groceries and get the heck out of the store, bear managed to open the kit kat he found, conveniently, right by the check outs. the cashier is laughing at how adorable he is licking his lips and tossing away the wrapper so he can get at the kit kat. i am frantically trying to add up the groceries and make comments not involving swearing at the kids.

at the end of it all, i had to put back the milky ways and apple juice (aldi's does not take credit cards and i ran out of cash), abandon the cashier to chase the boys down who ran outside while i was choosing the groceries to leave behind, smile sweetly at the people behind me who were talking about the amount of "spit and vinegar" in my children, and strap the boys in the carseats while thanking the lord that we made it out of there with food for the week and both kids.

nothing extraordinary in this trip to aldi's, in fact it is par for the course of our grocery shopping escapades. however, recollecting all the efforts and emotions that go into our weekly stash of food makes me really appreciate being home again.

Grandma's Home!

brad's parents, the lampens, migrate to florida to spend the winter months in a paradise of golf and warm weather. however, every now and then, grandma braves the winter weather and heads for holland. we cherish this time with grandma and soak up every moment we can. grandma came home on friday afternoon and we have seen her every day since! the boys captivate grandma with all their newest tricks, while i keep her busy with laundry to fold. (hey, she asked :))

here the boys are showing her their artistic skills involving play doh.

as you can see, maxer is delighted to have grandma home. we all are! as her trip winds down to her departure, we are reminded of how important the moments are with people we love. we need not do anything spectacular, just be in one another's presence and appreciate the relationships we have been blessed with.

mom is on her way to florida today and the difficulty of a long distance relationship is looming ahead yet again until the lampens return in april. until then, we have lots of memories and lots of love to tide us over!

Unleashing the Artist Within

winter months necessitate creativity. i need to get creative to entertain my wild child boys, and they in turn get creative with whatever medium i give them to express themselves. today it was painting. (please focus on the cute kids and not the disastrous looking living room in the background)

maxer was all business,

painting a picture of a "pretty street where all the people can go on". all of his paintings are streets and people walking these days... weird

bear, well, bear was eating the paint.

i think it is completely evident that the real masterpieces are the boys themselves.

fearfully and wonderfully made by our awesome God.

Good Night, Sleep Tight

tucking my baby boys in at night brings me such joy. i love snuggling them down with their various pillows and blankies, praying with them, and kissing them all over. peeking in at them while they are sleeping just overwhelms my heart with peace and joy. look at this precious little baby bear:

cute!!

lately, my own exhaustion and nausea has really overtaken me at night. i literally have to psych myself up to bring the boys to bed. it is mostly the knowledge that once they are asleep, i can go to sleep that gives me the motivation i need to bring them to beddy bye.

last night i got bear down and had nothing left. i prepared maxer with jammies and love and a diaper and then kissed both he and brad as they were nestled together in the nest watching dirty jobs. as i was collapsing into my bed, maxer comes running in and says "i wanna kiss you goodnight mom", which meant he wanted to tuck me in this time! i thanked him and closed my eyes and he climbed right in the bed, patted my cheek, kissed my forehead, and whispered his "i love you". oh, i slept good resting in that sweet gesture.

His Brother's Keeper

the boys are at a point in their relationship where their bond is super strong. i recall spending many anxious moments worrying whether they would get along, and thinking of how to foster a healthy brotherly relationship between the two. that was time wasted. though they can fight about toys, tattle on each other, and get in one another's faces, there is such love.

these days, maxer gets all older brother protective regarding how brad and i treat his brother. it is so precious, and sometimes slightly frustrating. like when we try to punish bear for throwing food off of his highchair by slapping his hand, max will say, "don't hit weston!" or if i put bear in timeout for throwing toys down the stairs, max will yell at me "he doesn't like to be in timeout". the discipline process gets a little complicated then. thank you maxer for defending your bro but he is naughty. just back away max or you will join him.

these little glimpses into max's protective demeanor are ones i just cherish.

i am so excited to see how another babe enters the mix!

Preggers!

we are so blessed to anticipate the arrival of another baby!

we cannot get enough of our precious fam, so we asked and god granted us another little bundle to come. baby is due in august and i will cherish the remaining time as a family of four, but greatly look forward to when we get to meet the newest little treasure.

please join us in praying for that little miracle as god forms baby in his perfect design.

the pregnancy has been fine so far, except for morning sickness that lasts morning, noon, and night, and the usual exhaustion that accompanies growing a baby. we all packed the dr's office to hear that little heartbeat and were delighted with the first noises of baby #3. max asked "mom, do you want to get your baby out?" soon enough maxer, soon enough. bear can dutifully say "baby" and that is sweet to hear.

i am currently 11 weeks along, and am so ready for the day when my nausea recedes and i can feel fully involved in my life again. until that day comes, i will do what needs to be done, and not much else :)