1.  Ten on Tuesday was delayed due to the fact that we all got the norovirus on Monday and getting online was the last thing we wanted to do yesterday.  We are all still home today recovering, but we hope to be back to 100% tomorrow.   I truly hate watching my boys get sick, especially when I can barely take care of them because I am sick right along with them.


2.  I spend every Monday with a beautiful little girt that is having a pretty major surgery today at 11.  She was born with a cleft lip and palate.  This is her second surgery and from what I hear will be the worst.  The surgeon will be taking thin tissue from her cheek and covering and forming a new palate in mouth.  The recovery for this is lengthy and painful.  Please pray for all involved today and in the weeks ahead. 

3.  I heard this quote this week on GMA and just loved it... "you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."   Wow, that is so true.

4.  5 years ago I thought I was a "strong" person after going through years of infertility.  But I was really just a naive person.  I was a woman who thought trying to get pregnant, injecting myself with needles full of fertility meds, watching everyone around me get pregnant and dealing with miscarriage had made me "strong".   At this point 5 years ago, I had no idea what strength really meant.

5. I finally decided to see what all the fuss is about, so I cued up the Amazon Prime and settled in to watch Downton Abbey.  I finished Season 1 before the day was over.  Totally hooked!

6.  If I didn't just get notice that my library book that I have been waiting for is available, I would be watching Season 2 right now.

7.  Recipe of the week:  granola bars.  These really do taste like no bake cookies.  So yummy.  I used quick oats and they are fine.  And, I don't have wheat germ so I left that out.  I also swapped out coconut for some craisins.

Source: themarathonmom.com via Krista on Pinterest

8.  I wrote this post on Monday before I got sick.  I also overindulged in these bars before I got sick.  Needless to say, they don't look so good anymore...

9.  The other night Grant woke up screaming because there was a "squirmy monster" in his room.  Even at 3 am this kids cracks me up with his creative adjectives!!!

10.  Blessing of the week: health.  After suffering through the tummy bug, I am happy to only have to go through that once a year (knock on wood).

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I forgot to give you all the update on my dryer meets the crayons drama.  Per google searches, I rubbed the major spots with soap (dove bar) and then soaked them in really hot water and a full scoop of Oxiclean in the washer all night and then ran a load on the hardest cycle.  Most of the clothes came clean after that first cycle.  A few of them had to go through another cycle and I just decided that my white leggings are just going to look like they are tie dyed.  Good thing I only wear them underneath my ski clothes!

2.  As for my dryer, I tried everything that crayola and google searches suggested.  I finally took oxiclean and rubbed it on the inside of the dryer with a magic eraser and wahlah my dryer looked brand new!  I ran a wet wipe all over it and left it to dry out overnight just in case- I wasn't sure about using oxiclean like that in the dryer!

3.  What did we ever do before google and oxiclean????

4.  Ashton seems to think he has to be a grown up boy all of a sudden and I am less than pleased.  He thinks he needs to walk down the stairs instead of slide on his tummy.  He is also answering questions by either saying no or by shaking his head yes.

5.  Grant got into his preschool!  We are so excited.  Now we just need to figure out how we are going to make it work since the only days they offered the program we wanted are the days that I work.  I am so thankful my work is flexible and will allow me to take time off to help in class.

6. What happened to normal boxed Valentine cards?  The neighbor was showing me her valentines and I could hardly believe the creativity you have to put into a valentine card these days.  Some moms even made their own candy.  I am not sure if I am ready for all of this school mom competition.

7. Do you like bananas?  If yes, then you NEED to make this recipe.  I had bananas in my freezer that needed to be used so I made it the other day and had to fight not to eat the entire pan before Jason got home.  I really wish the pinterest picture was actually of the bars!

Source: lifessimplemeasures.blogspot.com via Krista on Pinterest

8.  Anyone else feeling the urge to put out Easter decorations?  I know there is still a lot of snow out there, but I really think it would be fun to bring out the eggs and easter bunnies to help us feel like spring is around the corner.

9.  Last night Jason snuck a few chocolate covered peanuts from the freezer.  Grant looked at him and asked what he was eating.  Jason fibbed and said nothing.  Grant looked at him and said, "yes, you are eating something daddy.  I smell chocolate!"  Yes, he is my son.  He can smell chocolate from a mile away!

10.  Blessing of the week: my job.  Some days I struggle with going to work because I really just want to be home with the boys.  But, I know it is good for them to get out and socialize and when it comes down to it, I really do love the adult interaction a couple days a week.  And, I am really blessed to work for a Christian organization that is flexible and allows me to leave early to go serve meals at the mission or pick my kids up and take them to dentist appointments. 

15 months

Ashton Nowell turned 15 months old on January 18.  He has grown so much since October, I can hardly stand it.  Luckily for me, he is a snuggly little guy so I still get baby snuggles every now and then.  By this age, Grant was totally done with it so I feel blessed that I get extra time with my little love!  This is what he has been up to the last three months...

* he is still a little guy.  At his check up he weighed 19 lbs 12 oz and was 30 in long.  It seems impossible, but Ashton weighs a pound less and is an inch shorter than Grant was at 15 months.  Dr S is not concerned since Grant was in the same size range.  We obviously just have small babies.

* as mentioned above, he is my little love.  I was always bummed that Grant was such a daddy's boy.  Well, I got my mommy's boy with Ashton.  He comes up to snuggle and puts his head on my shoulder all the time.  Whenever I am in the room, he wants to be held by mommy (which doesn't happen all the time btw) but he is always trying!

first haircut!

*he says ba bye, momma, dadda, grandma, grandpa, hello, apple, car, ball, off, up, and tries to say ashton but it comes out a en.  Its pretty cute.  He also signs more, all done, please and thank you.  Just recently he has started saying ma for more but usually he prefers to sign it. 

* he is a adventurous boy.  He climbs anything he can.  He crawls into small spaces.  He runs whenever he knows you are going to change his diaper.  He goes down slides like a 5 year old and then climbs back up and goes again.  He literally never stops moving from the moment I get him out of his crib to the minute I put him back in there.

*he LOVES food.  His favorite right now is clementine oranges, bananas and green beans.  He will pretty much eat anything you put in front of him though.  He drinks 3 glasses of milk a day and I just finally broke him from his night time bottle last week.  I know, it was way overdue but this little guy was hooked.  Or so I thought.  It only took one night for us not to mention it for him to be over it.  Ok, maybe it was me that was hooked :)

*he always has a smile on his face and has a laughter that is just contagious.  All if takes is a smile to him sometimes and he just busts out laughing!

*he loves baths.  I can barely get his clothes off before he is attempting to climb into the tub.

* he has a "I can do it myself" attitude.  He feeds himself with his fork and spoon and if he can't get it to work, he wants you to put the food on the fork and then hand it to him so he can put it in his mouth himself.

* everyone that sees his sneaky eyes, says that we will have our hands full with this one.  I totally agree with them!

*he loves to read.  His favorite books right now are the Daddy book (was also Grants favorite) and Brown Bear.

*he has become a much better sleeper than he was at 12 months.  He goes from 8-7:30 on a good night.  Every once in a while, he still sneaks in a bad night though.  At 14 months, he was down to one nap a day- usually from 1-3. 

loves to cuddle his blankie!

*he loves his older brother and wants to be just like him and do everything he does. It is interesting for me to witness all of this sibling interaction since I was an only child. 

*he loves to dance and does a cute little number where he stomps his foot down every time music starts.

This stage of life is so fun.  I love watching Asthon explore the world and even though I just did this with Grant 2 years ago, I have already forgotten just how cool it is to turn a light switch on and read the same book over and over again 50 times.  I look forward to the adventures the next three months will bring.  We love you so much Ashton Nowell.

1.  I read this on another blog last week and just loved it, " Life sometimes seems cruel as time marches on without any regards to my grief."  I admit to feeling that way many times over the last five years...

2.  Grantism of the week:  Grant tooted and I made a comment about it.  He looked at me with a very serious look on his face and said, "I didn't toot mommy, you just heard the wind from my toot."  Silly boy.

3. On our anniversary, we took Grant to the dentist for the first time.  Romantic, eh?  I decided that I wanted Jason there just in case Grant acted out because he is usually better behaved when Jason is around.  We made the appt over our lunch hour so we could take him to lunch afterwards if all went well.  He did awesome and he chose to go to Wendys for some chicken nuggets.    Of course, it didn't hurt that the dentist had a train going around the top of the room.  He is already asking when he can go back.

4.  We are in the very beginning stages of our house building project.  We had plans drawn up a couple years ago, but we want to make some changes to them.  Have any of you built houses?  If so, is there any advice you have for us?  Anything you wish you had in your house?  Anything you would change?

5.  Anyone else from the area feel like we are all freaking out just a little too much over the snow lately?  I guess I can't judge too much since I don't have kids in school, but it seems like they have a snow day every other day lately and it is barely snowing.  I remember walking through snow drifts as tall as I was in college and nothing closed.  Why the sudden panic every time a snowflake falls? 

6.  I have already started my lent cleanse.  I have found tons of clothes to get rid of and have started pricing baby items for a garage sale.  Next up, raid the toy box when the boys are sleeping.

7.  Our new game = where is Ashton getting a tooth now?  Currently, he is getting a molar and a front bottom tooth.

8.  I hit up the outlets this weekend.  There is just something so thrilling about getting a good deal:)

9. My mom had some follow up surgery on Monday.  Everything has gone well so far and we are praying that she will be home by the weekend.

10.  Blessing of the week: baby Haylee Quinn.  A good friend of mine went in for her weekly check up ( I think she was 37 wks) and the baby's heartbeat was slow.  She went directly to the hospital and was sent in for emergency c-section.  Baby girl had the cord wrapped around her neck.  I am praising God this week for blessing her with life.  When you hear of instances like that, how do you not believe in a higher power?  If her mom didn't have her appt that day, Haylee wouldn't be with us.  It gives me chills.

Ten on Tuesday

1.  Thanks for all of the birthday and anniversary wishes!  Sometimes I get overwhelmed at all the technology these days, but it is quite nice when it comes to your birthday and you are showered with so many blessings!

2.  Preschool decisions have been made.  Now we just need to say a prayer that he gets in. 

3.  It is never good when you finally take your family back to church after staying away because of all the illness, just to get an email that one of the 2 kids he was in nursery with was admitted to the hospital with RSV.  Looks like the four of us will not be in church together until the spring!

4.  Ashton's word of the week is hello.  He will stand by the door and say hello a hundred times in a row.  It cracks me up!

5.  One of my goals for the year was to read at least one book a month.  So far it is February 4 and I have read 3 books.  It feels so good to get lost in a book.  I really should've made time for this months ago.

6.  Something I am working on this February (the month of love) is praying for Jason. A while back I pinned some ideas for monthly prayers for your husband.  I thought it was a great idea, but like everything on pinterest, I pinned it and forgot about it.  This month of" love" I wanted to do something for J since I feel like so often his needs get pushed behind the needs of the boys.  I hope that this will be a good reminder for me to not let J be second string and for him to feel covered in prayer.

7.  We didn't have any plans for Super Bowl so I made up a few easy apps for us to munch on.  Have you ever tried Saltine Toffee?  SO easy and SO good.  I recommend you give it a try.

 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/saltine-toffee-cookies/

8. One way to ruin an evening quickly = open the dryer and realize that somehow a purple, green and red crayon melted their way through your clothes for the last 45 minutes.  I am trying to save the clothes as we speak.  I am praying that this works because it was a load of all the boys jeans and I REALLY don't want to have to go buy all new pants for them.    

9.  After wiping the dryer down and then scrubbing it with a magic eraser (advice from crayola) all while fighting off a killer headache, I finally just went to bed.  Anyone have any grand ideas of how to get the pink haze off the inside of the dryer before I put more clothes in there??? 

10.  Blessing of the week:  snow.  I just love how snow makes everything so still and beautiful.

9 years!

It seems like a lifetime ago that Jason and I knelt down and sang these words to each other in front of 100 of our closest friends and family.  It was a beautiful wintery day and a beautiful song that still makes me cry the minute I hear it!  I look at the words and can hardly believe how perfect they fit the the last 9 years we have been together. Through the good times and the bad times, we have leaned on each other but we couldn't have done it without that light shining down on us. 

Lord, let Your light, light of Your face
Shine on us 

That we may be saved
That we may have life
To shine our way in the darkest night
Let your light shine on us

Lord, let your grace, grace from Your hand,
Come over us 

That we may be saved
That we may have life
To shine our way in the darkest night
Let Your grace come over us

Lord, let Your love, love with no end
Fall on us 

That we may be saved,
That we may have life
To shine our way in the darkest night
Let Your love fall on us

Let Your light shine on us

Shine on Us by Philips, Craig and Dean

1.  Eating brownies covered in cookie dough for breakfast is perfectly ok as long as it is your birthday week, right?  That is how I am justifying it anyways....

2.  When I was young, I used to think of 40 as being SO OLD.  Now that I am rounding that corner towards 40, I wonder if kids look at me and think that same thing.

3.  Grant is growing up way too fast.  It occurred to me the other day that I never actually posted his 3 year update.  Our computer was in the shop on his birthday so it kinda got pushed back and forgotten.  I plan to post it soon.  Just believe me when I say he looks like such a big boy now and I really don't like it at all!

4.  Ashton has started to say amen after his nightly prayers. And, everytime we sit down to eat and we say lets pray, he holds out his hands to us.  That little guy just melts my heart.

5.  Grant went to 3s church for the first time this week.  In 2s church he always came back telling us he learned about Jesus and that was it.  This Sunday I asked him what he learned and he said about Jesus.  I was so bummed until he shouted out,"Jesus turned water into wine."  I was thrilled that he actually paid attention and retained the info!

6.  I am sitting here typing this with my window open.  In January.  Crazy weather. 

7.  Before the warm up yesterday, we had awesome snow accumulation.  The boys and I huddled inside on Friday and made soup, drank hot cocoa and watched the big snowflakes fall.  It was what I have craved for months.  Jason and I even got out for an hour of snowshoeing on our property on Sunday.  It was beautiful and renewed my faith that the sacrifices we are making now will be worth it once we are living there.

8.  Ashton's new thing is to take his wet diapers and throw them in the trash when he is done with them.  Too bad he thinks it is funny to put them anywhere but the trash.  I found one in my mixing bowls the other day.

9.  Anyone else totally stressed out about Preschool?  I think we have decided to wait another year since Grant won't be able to start Kindergarten until he is almost 6.  I want him to have as much fun as he can before school starts but there is so much pressure here to get your kids in school asap that it is stressing me out!

10.  Blessing of the week: more time.  I haven't mentioned it much, but we are just so thankful that J is working so close to home.  Last night we ate dinner at 5:30 (way earlier than it used to be) and then I was able to paint our dresser and put it back in its place by 8:00.  It really is amazing to me how much of a difference an hour makes.  The boys are just thrilled with their extra daddy time too!