Tyler's Birthday

Tyler actually got to experience a little of 2 mini birthdays! On his actual birthday he and I went to Dunkin Donuts for an after-school treat, then to GameStop. For dinner, his dad took him to his choice: Captain D's. :) Then, Friday (two days later) we picked up Tyler's cousins and headed to JumpZone where, fortunately, they didn't trample over all of the little guys there. They had a blast as you can see below:

Happy Birthday Brielle!!!

We were in Arkansas over the Thanksgiving Holiday, so we had Brielle's birthday party on her actual Birthday, November 28th at her grandparents house. Both sets of grandparents were there, since Will's parents had traveled with us to AR, along with Brielle's aunt, uncle, cousins, Oma, great Aunt, great Uncle, great-grandma, friends, and our immediate family too. She LOVED being sung too, being the center of attention, opening presents, and of course tearing up the cake (ah....traditions-this one I almost debated against, but it was OKAY).

Taken Nov. 27th:

I was a little out-of-practice at cake decorating!

My mom's new toy does this:

Two grandpa's, a mom, and a dad decorated this:

While we were singing her Birthday songs:

Loved her presents:

Ate all of her cake:

On this day I did a little reflecting on the day she was born. What a glorious memory! One year later, I very much appreciate the determination and personality that God has blessed her with. She is so unique and amazing, and such a JOY to be with.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET GIRL, BRIELLE!!!

It has been One Year...

The following pictures are recent, within the last few weeks, but the most recent (of Thanksgiving and Brielle's first birthday) I've yet to upload. Every milestone causes me to reflect on life with Brielle, and with the boys too, of course. This milestone, of her first birthday feels more significant than I expected it to. She is ONE now. That seems incredibly surreal. But it is true.
We had a wonderful holiday, we traveled to Arkansas to be with my family, we took Will's parents with us. Seven, in a SUV that seats...seven. It was squishy, but it worked. The food was SO GOOD. We ate and ate and ate and ate and ate......ugh, I can't even explain all of how much we ate. The last day there I was actually in pain from so much of that eating! It was time to go! lol Brielle's first birthday party was lots of fun, she was such a star, and I'll post those pictures as I get them (I didn't personally take any). She loved all of her gifts soooooo much! The following are actually pictures taken from home before we left, read more below them though....

We love to shop at Aldi:

Josh put the Santa hat on her:

While this blog is about our family and my musings...I can't help but say that I've really been thinking about other people so much lately. For example....a week and half ago our friend Tim's dad passed away...the memorial service was held yesterday...definitely have been thinking about them and keeping them in my prayers. Today is my own dad's birthday (Happy Birthday Dad!). Today is also the birthday of my good friend, Scarlet's first daughter, Daycie, who is celebrating in Heaven (Happy Birthday Daycie!). And I just recently learned that our friend Todd just got married in London (Congratulations Todd and Rebecca!) I think of friends of mine that I don't live near anymore, whether they have moved, or I have...or those I've lost touch with, or partial touch with. Last year, so many relationships I've been in were revamped with the amazing birth of Brielle. I thank God for that! and for His giving me new relationships as a result of her birth too. The funny thing is that on the way to AR I began praying for all of these people I think of, and I also prayed for myself, that God would give me rest on every side, and that He would enlarge my territory...the prayer of Jabez, right? Well...on the way home, I had indescribable peace about my life, my mission, my ministry, my purpose. Like everything just fell right into place the way God has planned it all along. It may be significant that it would come at Brielle's one year celebration milestone, or it may be that God was always prepared to answer if I'd only just have prayed about it. I didn't ask for specifics...I am just putting my faith in His plans...and He has given me a great amount of peace and comfort and purpose. For this and for everything I Praise Him!!!!

Boys' Birthdays

Josh just celebrated his 12th Birthday (wow!) last week and a few days ago Tyler celebrated his 9th! They had originally wanted to have a birthday together again this year and decided on the Rollerdome. Well, after I called that poor worker guy like 3 times and bugged him about rates, dates, times, party packages, you name it, I decided it would not be worth it. I thought we'd spend too much money for something that was too hectic and crazy and not worth all of the effort. So, we let the boys decide what they wanted to do for their birthdays after giving them a few options to choose from.
Well, we didn't really spend less money, but I think they still had fun. Josh chose to go to Opry Mills and he got to do this bungee jump thing there in the mall, which was really fun for him, and if I knew anything about loading my phone's videos onto here I'd post it. But I do not. It's really funny though because after a good back flip, he lands on his head the next time. He likes it. They also went to Build-A-Bear to get "accessories" for their bunny and Husky. Yes, you might say they are too big to do such a thing (they got skate gear, police gear, shades, a new shirt) but...we are like "ya know? the time is going to be soon when they no longer ask for such things." So we don't try to grow them up faster than they are growing. The world does that enough for us. They also got new Nikes. That was really good.
For Tyler's birthday we took him to Chuck E. Cheese. They played video games, we had pizza, Will and I shouted across the table at one another over a sleeping baby and called it "conversation." It was nice. But I LOVE fountain drinks, so I dosed up on too much Mr. Pibb and could not fall asleep that night. Then we went back to the house and the aunts, uncle, and cousins came over to share in with the strawberry cupcakes Tyler had made (for his own birthday). Hey, he wanted to do it. Josh had made some Strawberry Truffles. They were YUM too! All in all it went well. Tyler bought Legos with his birthday money at a trip to Toys R Us, and Josh (who has been saving up for a year) was finally able to get the PSP with a little help from us. They were both happy with those gifts.
Yesterday we had an earlier house church group meeting time because the weather was perfect for a cook out. Then afterwards a few of us went to hike Rotary Park's trails.
Honestly, I think they liked that just as well as anything else we did though. For which I am so thankful!

Turns out it's not so hard to figure it out after all. Go figure.