This Week and Other Such Non-Formalities

The snow has mostly melted, the sun actually broke through the clouds yesterday, it tried to rain/snow today but didn't get further than about 10 flakes and now the sun is back out again, the boys had a wonderful morning with their Grandma and their mommy had a wonderful morning by herself...it's a good ending to the week, despite what the rest of it held.

Last week Friday Bryan came home from work early and the car was covered in thick ice.  It was raining ice, but not nearly as much as some areas south of here.

One of Brandon's new favorite games--wheel barrow.

Micah tries too...  ;)

 Monday Uncle James came for supper and put the boys to bed.  Bryan and I had a meeting at church. He helped them build a tall tower which both boys were extremely proud of.  Brandon decided it needed to be taller on Tuesday so he kept going up, then it crashed, so he re-built it and made it even taller yet, then it crashed again, so he rebuilt it with some help, and it crashed again...then he was done. 

Micah didn't help the stabilization very much...

Yesterday the sun was shining brightly so we went to the park.  I've been making Micah walk more instead of being in the stroller so much--he doesn't like the idea very much.   See that pouty face?

And finally, it's Friday, which means it's the day to check in with P52.  Can I just say that I don't understand why every photo contest/group ALWAYS has to have a "self-portrait" theme?  Really, there are far better ways to encourage a photographer to get in front of the camera!!!!!  Okay, I'm done ranting.  It's at this point that I usually drop out of these groups because self-portraits drive me nuts!  But I'm not willing to do P4 instead of P52 so I had to push through it.  I went online for some creative self-portrait ideas to try and here's what happened.

Inspired by Carolina Farre

Inspired by Fergus Ray Murray

And that brings us to the end of yet another week. 

There are times when God brings us up short and very pointedly reminds us of his truths.  This morning it was Psalm 46:10: "BE STILL, and KNOW that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

May you find peace and rest in knowing that he is God.
Blessings

One of THOSE times...

We've all done it.  We've all said or done things that our family never let us forget, have retold numerous times, often at the most embarrassing times, and will continue to tell.

For instance, on my fifth birthday I asked my mom if I was still S-A-R-A and when she said yes, I would always be S-A-R-A I told her "But Rachel is 7 and she's not S-A-R-A anymore!"

Well, Brandon just had one of THOSE moments.  As I was washing him up tonight in the bathtub, he pointed to his bottle of soap that has all the CARS characters on it and said, "Mom, when I'm five will I be BIG Mcqueen?"  ;)

Blessings

And yet there is Beauty

Snow is COLD--I don't like being cold so I don't like snow very much.  This kind of snow gets into my bones and I have a hard time getting warm no matter how high the temperature is set inside.  It also gives me a stomach ache.  My first year in college the thermostat for our room was right next to my desk and I would slowly turn it up until it was 80 degrees in our room.  If my roommate was there she didn't notice usually, but if she walked in the door at 80 she noticed and made me turn it back down. 

But snow has always been beautiful to me, as well.  I love the imagery of God cleansing us to be white as snow and when the sun hits it and it sparkles it reminds me of what heaven will be like--sparkly, clean, holy, flawless.  I love the way it sits on branches and shows God's artistry in all the different ways trees grow.  I love the way it ascents colors.  I love it's beauty--from the inside watching out.

But I couldn't get good pictures from inside, so when the boys were playing outside I took some time to walk around the yard with my camera too.

This picture made me stop and think about the incredibly vast aray of trees God made--these are just a few and yet they all grow differently and the snow really brings that out.

And then the wind started...it got colder and I started dreaming a dream...

I dreamed a dream of being warm again. 

Thankfully, so thankfully, we did not lose power like so many have, especially to the south. My heart went out to them this morning when I read the power company says it may be four or more days before they get the power back on again.

Blessings on your weekend.  May you have eyes wide open to see God's beauty and may his warmth fill your hearts today.

Snow Fun

What a cold and snowy week.  Bryan and I were laughing at one of the weather(dot)com articles.  The first paragraph read something like: "The NW is getting hit with a snow storm of historical proportions!  Seattle might even get more than 6 inches."  Having lived in Iowa, having seen more than six inches here, and having family who lives in areas where six inches might fall in an hour, we thought it was a rather humorous statement.

Anyway, Brandon loved playing in the snow and spent quite a bit of time outside before the temperatures dropped to below frigid.  Micah enjoyed it for about ten minutes at a time.

Saturday we had absolutely no plans, which doesn't happen very often.  With the boys being sick again and regularly sleeping in till 8:30 in the morning, I was looking forward to actually being able to stay in bed for a lot longer than normal.  Unfortunately, Brandon called me in to their room at 7AM (okay so I got an extra hour and a half) all excited about the SNOW that was "ALL OVER".  End of sleep.  Bryan very graciously told the boys that Mommy would play in the snow with them.  He sacrificed himself a couple times to open the door and take pictures...

Saturday's snow was quite wet so it made a nice compact snow for a snowman.

Micah discovering all this white stuff.

Brandon's often frequented favorite position in the snow.

Late Saturday night we got a call from my brother Bryan.  He was in Seattle and had driven through Lynden twice without stopping.  WHAT?  After giving him a major guilt trip and having one of his friends get on the phone and beg for mercy and not catching the flights they wanted, he drove back up to Lynden and spent a day with us.  It was a real treat!

Catching the rocket.

See how incredibly similar they are in athletic build?

Brandon and Bryan had a race to see who could get the rocket first.

Launching together.

 Monday it started snowing more and when Brandon decided to come inside and warm up, he spent his time in front of the door watching the snow.

Tuesday, after all that snow had fallen, was a fun day for the kids.  The snow was quite fluffy and fun to play with but didn't stay together very well for a snowman.

Wednesday the temperature dropped to 9 F without the windchill (I heard the windchill factor had us at about -10.)  Needless to say we didn't go outside.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be at 45F and raining.  Seattle is frozen over in ice--I hope our snow melts and doesn't turn back in to ice.

Time to make supper.
Blessings

Precious Moments: A Fun Sequence

I'm sorting and editing lots of pictures today.  It was the perfect day for it.

Anyway, I came across a fun sequence to share today.  More of our snowy week pictures soon.

See the big grin on that precious face?  I have one little boy who absolutely LOVES to play in the snow.  My other little boy gave me a wonderful excuse to need to go back inside.  ;)

Blessings

Reflections

The Joy in this Week

So some of these pictures are from last week and most of these pictures were from Monday, but they are all reminders of joy and love.

Very proud to be a cowboy!

Monday we had a friend come over to play for the day.  It was so much fun watching her and Brandon play together.  They are so alike and yet so very different!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" POUNCE

Dainty jump

Micah would not be left out of the fun.  He had to have his own rocket.

After rockets we moved on to rocket balloons.  I blew up the long balloons with a
pump, we counted and let them go, watched them swirl around the sky and make funny noises
then the kids ran after them!  It's great fun.

Ahhh, some quiet and rest time.

Play dough time was especially fun with all the new play dough toys Brandon got for
Christmas.  The coveted (but very well shared) tool was the dentist's drill.

Grandma stopped by for a couple minutes and got suckered in to playing too (it wasn't that hard to convince her). :)

They made play dough donut men.

My favorite line of the day came from Brandon several times throughout the day: "Mommy, she's a girl!" 
I've decided to join a P52 group to keep me accountable for taking pictures each week.  This week's theme was "Made With Love" and I just wasn't sure what to take pictures of until I was giving the boys a bath the other night.  These two were made by a loving God, in love despite their physical difficulties, with so much love to give.  It's been fun watching them learn how to show love to each other as brothers and to others.  It's been fun watching Brandon grow in his love of his little brother by taking care of him, holding his hand, helping him stay out of trouble, and picking him up when he falls.  Micah's learning to give "kisses" and that has love written all over it!

Finally, this week has held some spectacular sunrises!  Mostly I just enjoyed watching them and not trying to capture all the colors.  They have been special reminders to us that God is present, he is faithful and he molds each day for his purposes!  The sunrises have been great reminders to glorify Him this week!

Blessings on your weekend.