Lately in Windom

He's beginning to embrace the snow

Date day in Sioux Falls!

The luxuries people who don't have toddlers in the house take for granted: Being able to leave your dishes sitting on the end table without ::gasp:: cleaning them up before you're even done eating!

We had a couple construction projects on our agenda for our partial weekend without kids: Organization in our under-the-stairs closet and organization in our spice cabinet!

note

Before / After

Before / After

One of our favorites nights in our house: Spaghetti Night!!

I have a feeling this is going to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of these two ever. It SOOOO captures their relationship :)

Mark is one of the most popular guys at daycare. The kids attack him when he gets there haha Snowball fight, anyone?

This absolutely gets me through many mornings at work.

YUM! Kinda reminds me of Noosa both in the texture AND fact that it's 280 calories per container (whoa!)

I love both the long-sleeve shirt in this picture AND the coffee in the mug.

Turkey sausage and diced onions. Is there any better smell??

He's not supposed to be this big!

Jake and Cubby made an appearance at Cashel's 3rd birthday party!

I loved how his cake turned out! I was a little skeptical at first, but I've grown to really love decorating their cakes :)

There has been a HUGE baby boom amongst our group of friends.

The baby boom made possible by these ladies :)

And, well, I suppose by these guys too haha

We're working on spelling...whenever we aren't prying the magnets out of Kendrick's clenched fist...or mouth. Methinks we need to find a place where Kendrick can't get at it.

Stay tuned for another update probably sooner than later. I have even more pics from lately still on my DSLR. I don't even want to know how many I've taken this month so far. I'm sure it's over 1000.

January Recap

Disclaimer: I'm going to shake it up a bit this year and ::gasp:: just post when I feel like it. No holding myself accountable for making sure every event gets documented (although I'm sure I'll be kicking myself when I get to scrapping events and I don't have a nice little commentary on them). I just don't have the time to keep up with it, and I'd rather spend my time NOT doing a play by play.


January.

I knew it was coming, but I still couldn't be prepared for how completely insane the month of January was. January is notoriously the absolute worst month for me at work: Every January I vow I'm quitting. It is usually fairly busy, and it is also when my boss usually is out on vacation for about three weeks every year. This year was no exception, except for the part where things were (unexpectedly) extraordinarily busier than usual, and I had to recall a LOT of hardware and networking knowledge from the past six years just to stay afloat each day, which is just...well...so completely exhausting. I really don't like hardware and networking: I dare say I loathe it. And to top it off, people were just not very pleasant about their needs, so my daily interactions were a compilation of really rude and mean people who were angry because I didn't know what I was doing and was doing my best to figure it out. So January? Yeah, January can just kinda go away.

But that really, really hard month is now OVER!!!!!!!!

Don't get me wrong: We had some really great moments in January: Moments where my boys just made me laugh and giggle and smile. We had tickle fights and played in the bouncy house together. We painted and colored and had races ("It's time for marks, guys!" -Cashel).

The boys clung to Daddy...

We were sick...and then well.

Happy...

and then sad.

We ate a heck of a lot of popcorn.

The boys enjoyed a fun evening at a daycare party in town :)

I got my new camera!!

We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, and it obviously did a heck of a lot of good with two toddlers in the house ::sigh::

We are still fighting the nap battle with Cashel, and it's getting old fast. He'll push all day to not take a nap...

...and then BAM. Always at the most inconvenient times he's just done for the night. Before supper. Which means that he wants to eat at 3am.

We had a wonderful night "off" from parenting in which we ate, we shopped and we worked on projects! We're not THAT old, though: We did actually consider hopping a plane to Vegas for 24 hours haha And then we laughed and laughed at how ridiculous that sounded. We didn't want to waste our precious time off traveling.

We enjoyed lunch with Great Grandma Vi :)

Cashel turned THREE (and I DID still do a recap on that - click here for it!)

 

Looking Ahead...

Yeah, we're done with the trip and all now, but I wrote most of this up before we left and just never got it posted, so I'm not changing it.

We are GIDDY about some time off as a family in Key Largo!

We will be leaving these temps (which are arguably pretty great where we live for this time of year!)...

...for these temps :)

We cannot wait, and we're mostly packed and ready to go. The boys are really excited to fly on an airplane :) Mommy and Daddy are really excited to STOP WEARING COATS for a week! Oh, and Mommy is excited to not NEED to have a second cup of coffee, but to relax and enjoy one anyway :)

And that, my friends, is as far as we have thought about our future for the time being. We've been too weary to think about much else. We know there are events coming up this year and plans to be made, but for the time being, our minds are on vacation, and I just have to say: It's about time!

Responsibility, Guilt and Stress

Two weekends ago, we had Saturday and Sunday "off" as parents, and the boys stayed with Grandpa and Grandma. And aside from feeling generally kinda crummy on Saturday, the weekend was a nice relief from life in general. I don't know when the weight and stress of obligations sort of lifted from my shoulders, but I can tell you the exact point where I felt it all come back on my neck and shoulders - as I was beginning to fall asleep on Sunday afternoon around 2pm.

I was supposed to be embracing this opportunity to nap when all of a sudden I felt so guilty for sleeping instead of cleaning. I felt guilty that I wasn't going to have Cashel's 2014 book done and in my hands by next Monday (his official birthday). I felt guilty that I didn't have the laundry folded. I felt guilty that I didn't get outside on such a beautiful day. I felt guilty that I was going to take a nap instead of go and get my babies. I felt guilty that I didn't make cookies for their return. I felt guilty for thinking about cookies because I should really be out running on such a beautiful day and working on dropping more of the baby weight I've struggled with for over a year now. I felt guilty at the realization that I have let myself go to the point where running is laughable, so then I felt guilty that I wasn't at least out for a walk. I felt guilty that I wasn't visiting my Mom, who could use some extra help these days. I felt guilty that I wasn't practicing my piping techniques for Cashel's cake on this coming Saturday.

I just felt this enormous weight on my shoulders, and it made me ache. Physically. Mentally. My eye has been twitching for days now. All of this stress and strain, my chiropractor tells me, can lead to long-term health issues. And then I feel the guilt pile on because I should really be doing something to relieve my stress. Like take a nap. (haha)

But then I was too awake. So I worked on Cashel's book. And it really, truly is going to be glorious: For that I smile, and I feel a little of the weight dissipate. But overall, I just feel the weight of it all: The weight of responsibility.

I feel like I've come a long, long ways from where I was even just two years ago. I've cut myself a significant amount of slack about a lot of things. I've cut a lot of negativity out of my life. I've said "no" to things that probably have inconvenienced other people, and I've truly let the stress of thinking about having inconvenienced someone else go.

But just as I cut stress in one place, it seems to pile on in others. My work responsibilities have grown significantly over the past couple years, and my knowledge base has expanded faster than my head can hold it all. My Mom's health has been a major concern especially since the beginning of November, and I can't be there to help her out. I struggle constantly, wondering if I'm spending more time worrying and stressing than I am loving my family. And don't get me wrong - I love them all immensely and deeply, and they really do know it. But mentally, I find myself just not all there all the time.

The sermon we had this past Sunday could NOT have come at a better time, truthfully. It was all about fear, and how we let it consume us and ruin our lives. And really, that's what it comes down to for me: Fear. I'm afraid.

I John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

Ohhhh did I need this promise. This reminder that fear can destroy us, and the conviction that MY fears are driven by self-imposed expectations and a fear of the unknown. Pastor quoted some research that 85% of the things that we worry about never happen. But the interesting part of the quote was that the 15% of the things we worry about that happen? We handle those things very well most of the time. And it's SO TRUE for me!

I spend a vast majority of my days worrying about how I am going to handle things that don't ever happen anyway.

Pastor challenged me to think: What would my life look like without fear? And to be honest, just even that single thought freed me: Christ freed me.

If there has been a major theme for my life in 2014 (that is very obviously dragging into 2015 for me), it has been my learning process of giving up my burdens and fears to Christ. And it has NOT been easy this year. We have had a whole swarm of ups and downs, and there have been so many times where I've been beat up so much emotionally and mentally and physically that I just feel like I could explode. But I think that's the point where I needed to be to realize how desperately I need the Lord. How desperately I need to lean on him. How he needs to be my everything.

I feel so overwhelmed by my thoughts most days; by all those things that need to get done, and by all the people who I want to show love to who I didn't make it to today. I feel overwhelmed by the vast number of people who need to be shown Christ's love, and I feel so completely inadequate when it comes to showing them. I know that 2015 is going to be an interesting year for me spiritually.

May I leave you with a song that has really spoken to me lately.

Happy Birthday to my Cashel Mark :)

My baby boy turns three today!

As I just finished up Cashel's 2014 book on Saturday morning, I put the pages into a little video to recap his year. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together :)


Professional photos by Red Barn Photography in Windom, Minnesota.
Slideshow music: "Love Come to Life" by Big Daddy Weave.

Lately in Windom

This little guy turns THREE in FOUR DAYS!

Kendrick isn't too fond of sitting in his high chair anymore. Standing on the chair is his favorite. ::sigh::

Home sick for the day. It turned out to just be teething, but Mama got some sicky snuggles anyway :)

This guy somehow holds down our crazy household, and with a smile :)

We have apparently been talking about parties too much lately. After NYE, Cashel decided that he wanted to host his own party. On the menu were popcorn and milk. All the party guests were legos. He got pretty upset when Kendrick crashed the party.

He gave him a firm talking to that sent him off crying.

This "I'm just about to cry" face is just too cute.

The boys just love their little recliners.

They LOVE to read with Daddy.

Digi-scrapping: Eating up all my free time lately.


I'm in love with this scarf and this shirt.

Lunch date with (Great) Grandma Vi. Love watching her interact with my kiddos. They adore her!

Trying to stay positive. It was 3:15pm and neither boy had taken a nap yet. It typically goes about like this one the Sundays we spend in Worthington.

But in all fairness, exciting things happen when we're in Worthington...like feeding each other (and Grandma Pam) popcorn.


But no worries...42 seconds after leaving, he was out cold...for 2 hours.

I am SOOOOOO giddy! I can already tell that it is going to be a super easy transition from my D40!

This cannot be happening ::sniff sniff::

Coloring with Daddy

The boys with their daycare friends :) Jody threw a party for the kids and gave

Our boys adore her :) (P.S. So do we!)


I seriously LOVE it! :)

I also love this! (Spicy Sausage Pasta)

My almost three year old little guy. He loves to go to the grocery store with us on Mondays so he can get a sucker. He also loves his blankie still :)

This n.e.v.e.r. happens. I finished putting Kendrick down to bed and came upstairs to Cashel asleep on the couch. At 8:15pm. We are usually fighting him to go to sleep by 9pm these days.

Our boys are obsessed with this cool mist humidifier.

It's all fun and games until someone touches the wrong lego in the tower.

It's a never-ending battle keeping ahead of this one these days. I recently hid 4 cubes worth of toys from him because it makes for less to clean up.

But seriously...he's too cute to be mad at!

That's it for now! It has been pretty regular around here - nothing too exciting. Cashel's big birthday party is Saturday, and it sounds like we're going to have a very full house for the party!