Happy Due Date, Aaron!

I've taken this week off from blogging since my husband is home all week with the kids and me. It's been just a lovely vacation at home~ sleeping in (past 7am), breakfast with the whole crew, completing long overdue home projects, neighborhood walks, lengthy hot showers (my favorite) and plenty of baby-staring. See you all on Monday!

Baby Ducks, Baby Chicks, Baby Cats

Ok, everyone. I've got to keep it real. I'd love everyone to believe that I live an always happy, sinless, organized life with an adoring husband and clean obedient children. But you've read this blog before and you know that's not the whole truth. Life is not always very beautiful or exciting. And I have a confession.

Our cat, Buster, ran away.
Last January.
I didn't want to tell you because that's not very flattering.

Anyway, we have all been sad that Buster left that fateful Monday night, never to return. The kids have cried and cried and asked about him and prayed for him, but we never saw him again.

Tim told the children that if we ever heard of any other free kittens being born to friends from church that we could adopt another kitty. Well, the email came on April 5th (which happened to be our 8th wedding anniversary). Our friends who live in Elizabeth, CO, had a litter of 4 kittens, 1 female and 3 males. (Tim laid the ground rule that we'd have to get another boy cat~ I guess he doesn't want to start our own kitten factory.) Well, this past Sunday we were able to stop by our friends' house and claim a kitty.

It must truly be spring because they also had baby ducks and baby chicks, all ready to explore outside in the beautiful weather.

Once the box with the kittens was brought out, one by one, the baby cats began to emerge...

The first two were practically identical.

Then this guy popped his head out, and we knew there was something special about him.

Adam was more interested in studying the ducks and baby chicks.

We finally decided that kitty #3, with his beautiful blue eyes and tan coat with black stripes, was the one for us.

It was love at first sight.

We'd been tossing some cat names around for a few days and Dabney and Josh had their favorites (Josh was set on re-naming our new cat Buster) but as soon as we looked at that adorable fella, we knew one of them was perfect.

We've named him Shasta.

This midnight kitty was the sister. She was very shy.

This is the mama kitty. We weren't too popular with her and she did not pose for the camera.
Maybe because we keep talking about taking away one of her babies.

Mini Babymoon!

(A "babymoon" is a last getaway for mom and dad before their new baby arrives. Honeymoon, babymoon. Get it?)

We went away! For the first time ever, Tim and I escaped together with NO children! (Well, except the unborn one.) Our church has an annual marriage retreat at an old castle here in Southern Colorado and we were really blessed that it worked out for us to attend this year. We also went last year, but we brought along little Adam since he was still nursing. I can't even tell you how wonderful our little getaway was! The food was wonderful, the fellowship was delightful, and the accommodations were beautiful. Oh, and did I mention the material? We studied "What Did You Expect?" by Paul David Tripp. We watched the seminar on dvd and it is absolutely excellent, I recommend it highly! It's a very real look at marriage between two sinners with flawed hearts. I can't say enough about it. Tim and I are thinking of getting the audiobook.

Our room even had a balcony! Tim was out there early Saturday morning reading his Bible before he started the day. I was still snoozing.

Love this window seat.

We were so tired coming in the night before, I didn't have time to take a picture of the beautiful 4 poster before we crashed, but it looked something like this.

The colors of the room's decor was so peaceful and tranquil.

Most rooms had wardrobes~ there were not many closets.

My favorite thing about the bathroom was the big, eastern exposure window.

A better shot of the fireplace.

This is the exterior of the room we stayed in~ the arched window on the left was our window seat.

The weather was gorgeous and the retreat had some free time scheduled in so we could walk and explore as we liked.

And because I haven't posted pictures of the kids lately...

A good friend at church (who happens to be a reading tutor) recommended that we start David with some cursive handwriting to solidify good habits for him. Since he's left handed, sometimes he forgets that in English, letters and words are written and read from left to right. We've seen good success with this approach and now he and Dabney do their cursive handwriting work together.

Valentine's Day 2011 -- and 500 posts!

Ah, Valentine's Day.

However, you might notice it is after 10:30 pm, three days after the 14th. I really wanted to have a post on Valentine's Day, all lovey and sentimental. This year, Valentine's Day really didn't feel all sentimental, to be honest. It felt like the Monday to a very busy week, which it was.

My husband brought me roses and a card and chocolate and a dinner reservation (for the 6 of us), though we didn't actually make it to a restaurant. Tim saw the way that the day was proceeding, so we opted for take out lo mein instead. We love lo mein.

Valentine's for me really didn't come until last night.

Last night, we put the kids to bed and Tim snuck out to Sonic and brought back a Peanut Butter Cup Blast for us to share while we watched one of our favorite tv shows that we had on the dvr. And that's it. We sat together with a blanket and held hands and chatted. He kept my feet warm. It was delightful. Perfect. Exactly what we needed. After a long day (or two or three) with the kids, being alone with my husband absolutely refreshes me. I find myself becoming more dependent upon him for my sanity and direction in these crazy days. His hugs can take a lot of stress from my shoulders. His presence encourages me. He's my partner, my leader, my best friend and the man I love. I'm so grateful for him.

Best $3 date ever.

This votive holder was one of the things that Tim gave me for our very first Valentine's Day ever. We were about 6 weeks away from our wedding day.

Something else that has blessed our marriage immensely in the last few months has been our early morning coffee dates. Normally, Tim leaves for work while I'm still snoozing, but now, 4- 5 times a week, I wake up early with him and we enjoy a wonderful cup of coffee, read the Bible and pray together. It's also been a wonderful time to synchronize our days together.

Whether it's 10 minutes together or 30, this time together has been a huge blessing with great benefits to our marriage. A time to read your Bible is absolutely necessary, but if you can do it together with your husband, I would highly recommend it. This time has brought Tim and me much closer together and it is so worth the tiny bit of extra effort.

Hope your Valentine's Day (whenever it was) was as great as mine.

Making the Best of April (Snow) Showers

It began as a romp in the newly fallen snow..

then Daddy came outside and it erupted into a good-natured snowball fight...

Finally they decided to build a snowman.

And what a snowman it was!