Blog, kingston

stop and smell the tulips

One very hard lesson I’ve learned throughout the years is that things don’t always go according to plan. I think that’s especially true when you factor in a family. In those times, it’s good to remember that God is sovereign over all things–even though we may never know why things turn out like they do.

 

A couple of Mondays ago, we were planning on taking the kids up to Forest Park during Don’s weekend. That was the day that Evangeline was diagnosed with an ear infection and pneumonia. So we rescheduled to the following Monday. 

Well, once again, plans had to change. Our boys were coughing and feverish all weekend (which also meant we had to miss out on our church’s Bible conference.) Then on Saturday night, while driving home, our van started making horrible sounds and eventually the power steering went out. Thankfully we were able to pull right up next to our house and we weren’t stranded on the side of the highway.

 

Long story short–someone was able to come fix our van on Monday and it was much cheaper than we had expected! However, since the van was being worked on, that meant we couldn’t load up the whole family to go to the park.

 

I had a doctor’s appointment that day, close to Forest Park, so Kingston was my buddy for the afternoon. Of course it was kind of chilly–and super windy–but he was a good sport about it for the most part. We just had to rush to see all the flowers.

 

 

“The flowers smell like marshmallows!”

 

 

gotta love the way kids remind you to take the time to stop and smell the flowers–over and over again

our exciting trip became much less exciting to him when he realized we were not going inside “the castle.”

 

(remind me to print and frame this one!!)

 

When a stranger comes by and offers to take a picture of you and your freaked out 3 year old. **not getting framed! But it does make me laugh.

we did miss the prime time for the tulips but they were still beautiful!

 

 

 

and I’ll leave you with this super artsy belly shot. –photo credit: Kingston

Have a good weekend! (And make sure to wish Don a happy birthday tomorrow 😉 )

April 24, 2015

Blog, Kids Say

#sleepingwithabump and “kids say”

Before I share the ‘kids say’ post today–I just wanted to share a super cool thing that happened to us. I tried to keep it simple but feel free to scroll down to the cute stuff my kids have said lately 😉

 

All throughout our 7 1/2 years of marriage, we have always had a used mattress. It’s not necessarily in bad shape but it’s a little firm for our liking. Anyway, we have “complained’ to each other multiple times about how we needed a new mattress. The problem was the cost! A good quality mattress would cost so much and we were more interested in saving for a house. 

 

Anyway, a couple of weeks back, Don had mentioned again how badly we needed a new mattress. I told him that maybe we should just wait until we buy a house, then we could consider it. 

That same night, I was scrolling through instagram and came across a contest. The grand prize? A new queen Tempur-pedic mattress set (among other prizes!!!) Entry method? Post a pregnancy picture (showing how you attempt to get a comfortable night of sleep during pregnancy and use the hashtag #sleepingwithabump) This all seemed to be such crazy timing!

 

So after racking my brain on what kind of picture to take, I finally threw on some white clothes and had Don snap a few photos for me. (All white bedding just looks so appealing to me!) And let’s face it, I’m never comfortable while I sleep so I just attempted something that would LOOK comfortable.) I used a ton of filters, uploaded the picture, and then waited a whole week until they announced the winners. The whole time, I was obsessively checking to see if they had picked someone yet.

 

I was incredibly shocked when I saw that my name was announced as the first prize winner! Not only did we win the mattress set (valued at $3500), but we also won a $240 crib mattress, a $130 pillow, a book, and a couple of magazine subscriptions. Best prize ever!! But wait, there’s more!!

 

After talking about it, we decided we wanted to see if Mattress Firm would allow us to pay the $500 to upgrade to a king size. I figured–Go big or go home!

I reached out to them and asked them if that would be possible. Yesterday they notified me that they wanted to do me one better…they wanted to upgrade us for free!! What a blessing! I have no clue why they would even do that for us, especially when we had offered to pay for the upgrade. It just proves God’s kindness to His children…even in the little things.

 

All of the timing on this just felt like an answer to a prayer that we hadn’t specifically been praying for. But I am so thankful that we will soon have a new huge, comfy bed! I already promised the kids that we would have a movie night when it arrives.

 

So, not that they will ever read this…

But thank you to Small Fry Blog and Mattress Firm for seriously making me the happiest pregnant woman!!

 

 

 

 

And now a few words from my crazy kids….

 

Liam–“I wish I could wear a straight jacket.”

Me–“You would actually want to wear one?”

Liam–“Well, only if I wasn’t homeschooled.”

 

Kingston referred to his lips as his “kisser.” 

 

Liam was reading a book about Jesus’ birth and said “they brought him ‘Frankenstein’, myrrh, and gold.”

 

Kai–“There’s a bug outside that’s orange with a red nose. It has a tiny big nose.”

Me–“A tiny big nose?”

Kai–“Yeah, it’s little.”

 

Liam–“It’s a bird bug…

…I think I made that up.”

 

Me–“Why does your breath stink so much?”

Kai–“Because I’m a kid!”

 

Kingston–“I love evangeline. Hers my friend.” 

 

(As the boys were pretending their toys were bad guys)

Kai–“We need to smell yucky because bad guys always smell yucky!”

Liam–“Yeah, let’s cover ourselves with pickle sauce!”

 

For some reason, when Kingston sees a bee or a wasp, he refers to them as “that guy.”

He gave me a couple of heart attacks the first times I heard him use that term–

Examples:

(Running inside after playing on the deck–yelling and crying) “Mommy!! That guy out there is trying to get me!”

Or when a wasp got in our house “Mommy!! That guy is in our house! I don’t want him to get me!” 

After hearing those kinds of phrases a few times, I panic a lot less now. 

April 21, 2015